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South Africa will be the overwhelming favourites in the 10th men’s and 7th women’s African Cup of Nations tournaments scheduled to be held at the City Park Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya from September 26 to October 6.
South Africa have been dominating the men’s African Cup of Nations for a long while now. They have won this event for the six consecutive times since cornering glory in the 1993 edition in Nairobi.
In the women’s section, South Africa have also held sway, winning the championship for six consecutive times with Zimbabwe winning it once.
The tournaments will afford an opportunity for hockey playing nations from Africa to seal the elusive spot for the 2014 World Cup to be held in the Hague, the Netherlands from the African continent.
The tournament is being organized by the Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) under the auspices of the African Hockey Federation.
It may be worth mentioning here that Kenya earned the hosting rights after the African Hockey Federation allotted the event to Egypt, who withdrew their candidature on account of political tensions in the country. In fact, Kenya along with South Africa were kept as standbys.
The matches will be held during the day as well as under floodlights.
Kenya is hosting the African Cup of Nations for the second time. The African country earlier hosted it in 1993.
This is the second biggest hockey event the country is hosting – they earlier staged the 2007 Olympic qualifiers.
The inaugural men’s African Cup of Nations was held in Cairo, Egypt, where Ghana won the crown. The inaugural women’s African Cup of Nations was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, where the host nation annexed the title.
The last African Cup of Nations was held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where South Africa pipped Egypt by a solitary goal to take the men’s crown, while their women crushed Kenya 5-0 lay their hands on the winning trophy.
Both the men’s and women’s African Cup of Nations tourneys is held every two years since 2005. Prior to 2005, the event did not follow a stipulated time-frame and used to be held every three, four, five years or even more.
