After a successful outing at the just-concluded Africa Wrestling Championships in Morocco, the Kenya Amateur Wrestling Association (KAWA) has now shifted focus to the upcoming second edition of the East Africa Wrestling Championships.

The regional tournament, officially dubbed the East Africa Regional Development Tournament (EAREDT) in Amateur Wrestling, is scheduled to take place from August 6-11, 2025 in Nairobi.

Speaking yesterday from Ruiru in Kiambu County during a national team training session, junior head coach Mark Onguyesi Omumasaba said that despite a packed 2025 calendar with back-to-back international assignments, he remains confident in his charges.

He also promised to give more opportunities to emerging talents at the East Africa Championships as he works to build a strong foundation with the youngsters.

“We resumed training today [Monday, but my challenge with the juniors is that they come from different counties and attend different schools. That means I can’t organise a residential camp and instead have to rely on youth team coaches near them to monitor evening training after school,” said Omumasaba.

He added that he now has at least ten new junior wrestlers he wants to work with and will try them out in the upcoming tournament, which will feature both Freestyle and Beach Wrestling.

Omumasaba, who was assisted by Winrose Alivitsa during the Africa Wrestling Championships in Morocco, guided Kenya’s Cadets (Under-17) to win six medals; four bronze and two silver. These results saw the women’s cadets ranked third overall, while the men finished in eighth place with 40 points.

Their U-20 counterparts finished fifth out of nine with 65 points in the women’s category, while the men placed seventh out of 11 in Freestyle and seventh out of nine in Greco-Roman with 31 points.

“Regarding qualification for the Dakar Olympics next year, we qualify by placement, only positions one to three earn Olympic spots. That’s why we have several qualifying events lined up before next year as we fight for those top three positions,” Omumasaba concluded.

KAWA sent a strong squad of 18 wrestlers to Morocco last month, consisting of both juniors and seniors. The team returned last week with Kenya finishing 12th out of 20 in the Seniors Freestyle category with 40 points, fifth out of 12 in Greco-Roman with 60 points, and 11th out of 19 in Women’s Wrestling with 16 points.

Following the East Africa Amateur Wrestling Championships in August, Kenya will have little time to rest before heading back to Casablanca for the 2025 Africa Beach Wrestling Championships, scheduled for September 4–5. This championship will feature U-15, U-17, U-20 and senior categories.

With minimal time to spare as the United World Wrestling (UWW) calendar fills up with events, KAWA is under pressure to lobby the government for more resources to adequately prepare the many emerging talents now embracing the sport.

Wrestling is steadily regaining popularity among the new generation of Gen Zs.