1 November 2022
Kenya win first all-African match-up in international championship history
By even taking place, the first-ever Pan Continental Championships is itself writing a new page in curling’s story. In the men’s B-Division, Kenya faced Nigeria – the first time that teams from two African Member Associations have faced each other.
Kenya emerged from a topsy-turvy game with an historic extra end 11-10 win over Nigeria, but meanwhile, on the next sheet, India recorded their first-ever international win, beating Kazakhstan by 7-6 in another tight encounter.
The all-African game started with Kenya stealing two points in the first end, but by the fourth, Nigeria had levelled the score at 3-3 with a score of two. A score of five in the fifth end gave Kenya an 8-3 half-time lead, but Nigeria fought back, with two points in the sixth end and a steal of three in the seventh, to level the game again, at 8-8.
A score of one by the Nigerians in the tenth levelled the score again at 10-10, putting the game into an extra end. In that end, Nigeria skip Harold Woods could not get the better of a solitary scoring Kenya stone, giving Kenya a score of one – for 11-10 – without having to play their last stone.
After the game, amid the celebrations of the band of Kenya supporters, skip Oliver Enchenje said, “This feels very good, because we are part of history. It is the first time for Kenyans curling in any international event, and it’s good that we have won. This is the first time that two African countries have played each other and we’re very happy to have the win.”
Reflecting more generally, he added, “Even though we don’t have ice, we can still be motivated, and with motivation, everything is possible”.
Kenya’s coach, American Dean Roth, gave some more background to the win, saying, “This is the first time that they’ve ever curled in international competition and it’s actually the first game that they’ve played against people that are not part of their own team. I think it’s highly significant that they were able to win. Nigeria is a great team. This was the first time for these guys on championship ice and they managed to pull it out in the extra, so neither team can feel bad about that game – it was amazing.”
Asked about how the result would go down back in Kenya, he added, “I think if we can get this in the media in Kenya, it’s going to be a little bit of shock and a lot of celebration.”
In their game against Kazakhstan, India had to overcome giving up a steal of two in the second end, before establishing a 5-2 lead at the break with a steal of three in the fifth end. After blanking the sixth end, Kazakhstan responded with a three of their own to level the score at 5-5 in the seventh end. The teams then swapped singles in the eighth and ninth ends to keep the score level – at 6-6 – as the game went into the tenth end. India had last stone in this end and kept their nerves to score the one point needed for their 7-6 victory.
Speaking afterwards, India skip P N Raju said, “We’ve played together for more than five years now and this feels really great. This is our first WCF event and we’ve put in a lot of work and effort, so it’s great that all the hard work has paid off.”
Trying to put his team’s achievement into a broader perspective, he added, “This is a big deal. For a country like India in a Winter Olympic sport, this is a big achievement. I hope it inspires a lot of people. both in India and Indians living overseas, to try the sport so that hopefully we’ll see more people pick up the sport and play.”
These wins have given Kenya and India the perfect start to their campaigns, as they sit in joint top spot alongside Hong Kong and Guyana, who also had opening day victories. By the end of round-robin play on Friday, one of the eight teams playing in the B Division will have emerged as winner, gaining promotion to next season’s A Division and a tilt at direct World Championship qualification. For all these teams, the stakes are high.
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