Kenya’s Flag Football Queens shift focus to Olympics qualifiers after bagging bronze at continental championships

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 11, 2026 – A whirlwind two days of high-octane action at the continental flag football showpiece concluded on Saturday, leaving Kenya’s women’s national team celebrating a hard-fought bronze medal, a renewed fanbase, and a definitive blueprint for Olympic qualification.

The tournament, which officially kicked off on Thursday, saw the host nation experience a rollercoaster of emotions.

Following the conclusion of the competitive finals on Friday, the ecosystem shifted its focus to a massive talent scouting drive on Saturday, aiming to harvest the next generation of gridiron stars from the grassroots level.

For the women’s national team, the journey to the podium was a true test of mental fortitude.

Under the stewardship of head coach Saleh Tumala, the team opened their campaign with a victory against Ghana before enduring back-to-back setbacks in their second and third matches against Egypt and Nigeria respectively.

However, with the pressure piling up, the Kenyan queens staged a spectacular turnaround on their fourth assignment, completely dismantling South Africa in a jaw-dropping 44-0 shutout win.

They carried that clinical momentum straight into the third-place playoff, outclassing Ghana 18-6 to officially lock down the bronze medal.

“The pressure has piled up. We started in our first game, we won, then lost the second one and the third, but finally on the fourth, we got a big win. The preparation has been good, the anticipation, the support from the ministry has been good, and we are very happy,” Saleh reflected.

The tactical highlight of the tournament came during a fierce battle against continental champions Nigeria.

Though they lost, coach Saleh made sure his defensive masterclass was caught on the sidelines as he repeatedly barked instructions to lock down Nigeria’s star player.

“Nigeria’s umber four is a very good player, she was taunting other teams. I made sure that we shut her down so that she cannot influence the game. Because if she had a chance to influence the game, we would have lost by a bigger margin,” Saleh explained.

While flag football has quietly existed in Kenya since 2012, the sport has historically struggled to capture the public eye.

Saleh, who transitioned from an NFL Africa pilot program coach and former national defensive captain to the head coach role, believes hosting this continental tournament is the catalyst the sport drastically needed.

“We are actually excited that we as a country, Kenya, had this chance to host this tournament because for a very long time, the sport hasn’t gotten the publicity that it deserves. The fact that we have this tournament here, the publicity that we are going to get today is going to help us take the sport to the grassroots level,” he said.

In the men’s division, Kenya’s national team fell agonizingly short of replicating the women’s podium finish.

In a fiercely contested bronze-medal match, the Kenyan men were edged out 19-13 by a clinical South African side.

Elsewhere on the gridiron, Egypt asserted their absolute dominance on the continent by capturing the gold medal, leaving Nigeria to take home the silver after a tightly contested 12-6 grand finale.

With the competitive dust now settled, Coach Saleh is already looking toward the horizon.

The invaluable lessons in ball placement, defensive adjustments, and structural teamwork gained over the weekend will serve as the foundation for Kenya’s ultimate goal: the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Continental Championships next year, which serves as the official pathway to the Olympic Games.

“Coaching comes with a lot of pressure, and even more challenging is the fact that you coach a women’s team. But we go back home with a lot of lessons. We understand the game better in terms of ball placement, tactics, and technicality, I believe when we come back next year for the IFAF Continental Championships, we’ll be a better and a stronger team,” Saleh concluded.