TEAM Kenya will not have training camp in Rio ahead of the this year’s Olympic Games in Brazil.
Stephen Soi, the chef de mission of the Rio-bound Team Kenya intimated that there will be no stadia available in Rio as from May 31.
“We will not have pre Olympic camp in Rio because all venues in the hosting city will all unavailable by May 31, 2016. Team Kenya will leave on July 24 for Rio,” said Soi, who is also the deputy treasurer at the National Olympics Committee of Kenya and Kenya Judo Association former president.
Soi also cautioned federations to only enter athletes and players who have merited to be part of the Rio-bound team as stipulated in the IOC charter.
“Respective federations of the 28 Olympic sports must at all times only list athletes who merit to participate in the games. This will help Kenya avoid embarrassment and possible punishment as witnessed in a previous editions,” warned Soi.
Kenya’s Rio Olympics budget is Sh630m, and the government will cater for Sh558m while NOC-K will contribute Sh72m for the Olympics outing. So far, has the Kenya Sevens (men and women) and 62 athletes have already qualified for the games. The athletes will, however, be reduced to the final 32.
Soi was speaking during Media Seminar for Regional (East Africa) sports Journalists on how to cover Olympic events effectively at Elementaita, Nakuru County.
After posting a stellar performance at the FIVB World Grand Prix last year, NOC-K are also anticipating that the national women’s volleyball team christened ‘Malkia Strikers’ will qualify in next month’s continental tournament in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The last time Kenya women’s volleyball team featured at the Olympics was the 2004 Athens, Greece where celebrated setter Janet Wanja, a high school student then, launched her international career.
Other disciplines that are yet to go through qualification are judo, wrestling, boxing, lawn tennis, road cycling and mountain biking, and swimming. Team Kenya is scheduled to commence residential training in Nairobi on June 20, 2016 ahead of the prestigious and most revered global sports extravaganza.
Meanwhile, Association of National Olympics Committees of Africa (ANOCA) secretary general, Thomas Ganda Sithole intimated that African governments have thwarted the IOC’s effort to make the African Games one of the qualification tournament for Olympics for the continent.
“Sports ministers in Africa have time and again thwarted the efforts of the IOC to patronize the Africa Games and make it a platform for African athletes to qualify to the Olympics like other continents,” said.
The mortality rate of sports ministers in Africa is very high, contributing to the poor sports in the continent. This, Sithole says is a plot by governments through their respective national sports councils who are uncomfortable with the sports movement of the IOC.