Kenya set target for Olympic Games participation
Kenya have set itself a target of broadening the number of sports it competes in the Olympic Games at Brisbane 2032.
The country is known for its distance runners, which are among the strongest in the world, but the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) Secretary General, Francis Mutuku, has revealed plans to set targets in other sports.
“Building a champion takes 10 years,” he told a seminar in Mombasa organised by the Sports Journalists Association.
“We will have missed the train by a wide margin if we wait until 2030 to begin planning for the 2032 Olympic Games.
Among those that Mutuku is pinning his hopes on are a German-born left-handed épée fencer, Alexandra Ndolo.
She competed for Germany, winning a silver at the World Championships in Cairo last year, before announcing she was switching to Kenya, the country of her father.
“Athletes with unique circumstances, such as Alexandra Ndolo, the first Kenyan scheduled to compete in fencing at the 2024 Olympic Games, must get significant funding,” Mutuku said.
“She will motivate future generations.
“We have been advising our affiliate federations that gains shouldn’t be measured solely by looking at the world beaters the country has already produced.
“We must consider the future in addition to them.”
Kenya was represented in seven sports at Seoul 1988 and Rio 2016, but the 113 medals the country has won since its Olympic debut at Melbourne 1956 have all come from just two sports.
A total of 106 medals have come in athletics, including 34 gold medal, with the remaining seven coming in boxing. Including one gold for Robert Wangila in the men’s welterweight at Los Angeles 1984.
At the last Olympics, the re-arranged 2020 Games in Tokyo, Kenya sent 85 athletes in six sports.
Of that number, 40 competed in athletics, while both the men and women’s teams qualified for the rugby sevens tournaments.
The women’s team also qualified for the volleyball tournament, while Kenya also sent representatives in beach volleyball, boxing, swimming and taekwondo.
Kenya finished Tokyo 2020 with 10 medals, including four gold, all in athletics.
Mutuku also offered an undertaking that an expansion of devel
opment in sports will be accompanied by a robust anti-doping programme after the problems in athletics, where a number of top runners have tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.
These have included Olympic gold medallists, Beijing 2008 1500 metres champion, Asbel Kiprop, and Rio 2016 marathon winner, Jemima Sumgong. – Insidethegames. biz
