Basketball in Africa

The Somalia basketball team arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday from London for the inaugural Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca) Zone Five under-20 championships which begin tomorrow.

The 18-man team is made up of players of Somalia origin residing in the United Kingdom.Among those who arrived are head of delegation Duran Farah and coach Muhammud Nur. The players are Omar Mohammed, Chab Kirnon, Liban Hassan, Abdi Muktar, Ibrahim Ali, Mohammed Sharif, Mohammed Haliff, Koshin Diriye and Bashir Musse.

The countries are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Egypt. The competition will be used to identify young talent ahead of the July All Africa Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics.The competition will feature four events - athletics, boxing, cycling and basketball.