An appraisal of the Kenyan men's hockey team performance in international field hockey competition (1956 - 1996)
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Date
1997
Authors
Asembo, J. M.
Mwisukha, A.
Njororai, W. W. S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Although Field Hockey was introduced in Kenya at the beginning of the
20th century, her first major international competition was the 1956
Olympic Games held at Melbourne, Australia in which she was ranked
10th. The best performance by the Kenyan men's team was at the 1964
Tokyo Olympic Games where the team was ranked 6th and during the
World Cup tournament in Barcelona ,Spain in 1971 where she ranked 4th.
Since then the team IS performance has not been impressive. The poor
performance by the team is of major concern especially to a sporting
nation like Kenya. Thus, the purpose of this study was to analyse the
performance of the Kenyan men's hockey team in international
competitions from 1956 to 1996. During this period, the Kenyan men's
team participated in the East African tournament (Rahim Jivraji Cup
)/which she constantly won; All Africa Games' Hockey Competition (won
only once -1987 ) ; Indira Gandhi Memorial Gold Cup in which her best
performance has been 4th position (1992 & 1994) ;African Cup of Nations
which has never won, World Cup where her best performance was the
4th ranking in 1971 at Barcelona, Spain and the Olympic Games in which
Kenya represented the African Continent till 1988 when Egypt and South
Africa edged her out in 1992 and 1996 respectively. A critical analysis
indicated that ,Kenyan men's team performances could be classified into
four periods: 1956-1971 (major achievements), 1972 -1984 (mixed luck and
decline in performance),1985 -1993 (worst performance) and 1994 -1996
(some revival). Some of the factors which contributed to the impressive
performances in the 1956 -1971 period included adequate finances for
exposure and motivation of players, good management and
administration of the sport, participation in local international
tournaments and well structured league' at national level. The factors
associated with poor performances in 1972 -1993 included boycott of the
1976 and 1980 Olympic Games, poor, management and administration of
the sport, lack of adequate modern facilities, inferior systems of play and
lac]; of exposure for players. For field hockey to develop in Kenya, there is
need for development of coaching ,administration and management
programmes. Effective talent identification and development programme
ought to be instituted urgently. Further, the local coaches need to update
their knowledge in the sport so that only qualified coaches are employed
to manage the national team.
Description
A paper presented at the Africa Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and dance 3rd Scientific Congress held on 11th - 15th September, 1997 in Nairobi, Kenya
Keywords
Field hockey, Performance, Olympic games