NAIROBI, Reuter: Zimbabwe slammed 18 goals past Zambia in a forceful debut in the hockey tournament at the All Africa Games today while rival favorites Kenya and Egypt posted a second convincing win.
Kenya beat Nigeria 51 to keep alive their expectations of gold while Egypt beat Ghana 40.
On the soccer pitch Kenya surprisingly held Cameroun 33 and with 10 minutes to go looked like winning.
With six of the 21 matches in the Soviet nation Round Robin Hockey competition over, Egypt and Zimbabwe looked likely to pose the most serious threat to Kenya’s hopes of winning.
They result is especially important as the winner will represent Africa in the hockey tournament at the Olympic games in Seoul next year.
Zimbabwe made all the running in their morning match against Zambia, who was already smarting from their 100 defeat at the hands of Egypt yesterday.
Kenya’s superiority looked in doubt at the start of a fast and skillful match against Nigeria, who beat Tanzania 10 yesterday. When Kenya’s Julius Akumu opened the scoring in ‘the 10th minute, it took their rivals only four minutes to make the equalizer.
Kenya have played hockey for Africa at every Olympics since 1956 and their recent international performances gave them high hopes of retaining that honor.
Kenyan players said they were looking for maximum goal differences in all their matches in case they fail to beat Egypt and Zimbabwe purely on points.
Kenyan players who watched closely said the Ghanaians gave Egypt more trouble than the Kenyans encountered in beating the West Africans 5-0.
They said this made them confident of beating the Egyptians in the crucial clash on August 9.
LONDON, Reuter: Steve Ovett, despite his own doubts about his Readiness, was named today to run the 5,000 meters at the upcoming world athletics championships for a British team beset by form and fitness problems.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 7, 1987
