With the clock ticking towards June 26-27 Tokyo Olympic Games Trials, athletes are worried that Covid-19 pandemic is holding them back.
The most affected athletes are those who are not employed thus have no steady income to provide for basic needs.
Mary Moraa, the African 400m champion and 2017 World Under-18 silver medallist is among the worst affected by the pandemic that forced International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reschedule the Games to 2021.
Kenya is just opening up for contact and non-contact sports to resume. Crowds are still restricted from attending sports competitions.
Moraa is among the top athletes from Athletics Kenya (AK) Nyanza South Region, who is battling debilitating effects of Corona Virus yet she has her eyes firmly trained on the Olympics.
Others are James Momanyi, Vanice Kerubo Nyankisera, who won the 400m Hurdles at the African Championships in Ivory Coast last year, Elija Mathayo (200m), Joseph Nyakundi and Mercy Okech, a fourth form student from Macaldar.
“Our training has been sporadic throughout the year because of this pandemic. Camps and clubs closed, gyms out of bounds, meaning we had to resort to individual training, with its attendant disadvantages,” said Moraa, 20.
“An athlete cannot do proper speed work alone. Yet we can’t train in a group of five. This limits us a lot,” she said. The pressure that comes with her status is making matters worse, coming from a family of four, three of them girls.
“My coaches (Alex Sang and Kirwa) draw the programme which I am meant to follow with all these challenges. Sometimes, I train with world champion, Helen Obiri,” said the athlete, who horned her talent at Mogonga PH Secondary School in Gesusu, Kisii County.
“And without a job, I lack basic requirements, like glucose and good diet. We ask for provisions from up-country to enable us manage our training,” she said in apparent reference to vegetables and bananas.
“There are high expectations from my people up country given my status as a top athlete yet I am unemployed and I have to depend on provisions from them. At the same time, I want to remain in good shape for the Olympic trials. It is really hard on us,” she said.
Kerubo, 19, trains with her sister Faith Nyankisera and cousin Jackline Cherono in Ngong and Ruaraka under veteran coach Vincent Mumo.
She confirmed that provisions have been coming from up country to supplement the little that they have in the city.
Although group training is resuming slowly, it is now up to January when athletes will know their fate.
Athletics Kenya (AK) Committee member, Barnaba Korir, said they have scheduled meetings with National Olympic Committee of Kenya to chart the way forward for Olympics hopefuls.
Athletes are expected to apply for funding to cushion them from ravages of Covid-19 pandemic. That will, however, cut across all sports with competitors that have qualified for the Olympic Games.
“Just like World Athletics did last May, when 19 Kenyan athletes benefitted from funding from WA to cushion their training, NOCK will invite application for funding from individual athletes to help them from the effects of the pandemic,” said Korir while referring to financial assistance WA gave athletes, which were given on merit.
“We can’t do much at the moment. Athletes have been encouraged to start training in their camps and participate in the cross country series to keep them in shape,” he said.
Moraa, for instance, has been participating in the cross country series. Officials fear that the absence of competitions where winners receive prize money, has brought their morale to an all-time low.
Peter Angwenyi, AK Nyanza South Region Chairman, said unemployed athletes have taken the hardest hit from the pandemic.
“Without competitions, local and foreign athletes are the biggest losers. They neither receive prize money for winners nor allowances that come with such travelling,” he said.
“But we have been helping them in getting proper diet by facilitating delivery of foodstuffs from up-country to Nairobi for our athletes who train there,” he said.
Haroun Onchonga, the founding manager of Mogonga Training Camp, said the pandemic has instilled fear and stigma among athletes and coaches.
“You never know who is affected and who is not. So athletes fear their coaches and vice versa,” said Mr Onchonga, who is now head teacher at Nyameru High in Nyamira. He said with most fields closed and institutions of learning also locked for the general public, athletes have to train individually, which, as Moraa said, makes training boring.
“When we train in a group, we do much better. Individual training is like running in an empty stadium which may happen during the Olympics. Without crowds, that will be a disaster, there is no morale,” she said.
Onchonga weighs in: “Parents cannot allow young athletes to join their colleagues for fear of coronavirus. And with unstable financial resources, managing the situation to get athletes in good shape has become a bug challenge.”
