•Ogolla said Team Kenya managers and heads of various departments will share their experiences and challenges for future considerations.
•He said selections were done in the right way.
Image: NOCK
Kenya has embarked on a rigorous policy formulation exercise to enhance the performance of athletes on the global stage.
Speaking during a stakeholders meeting on Sunday, Team Kenya chef de mission to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, John Ogolla, reiterated the desire of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya to improve the country's fortunes in future competitions.
Ogolla said they will be appraising Kenya's performance in Birmingham to ascertain if their targets were met.
“Technically, I was the director of the games in terms of Kenya's participation. We had a plan that contained a set of goals we hoped to achieve,” Ogolla said.
“We have gathered to appraise the plan to see if whatever we had in place was sufficient and effective. Then we can drop whatever we did wrong and incorporate new tricks that we learned from our competitors,” he added.
“We are looking at the plan vis a vis our experiences on the ground.”
Ogolla said Team Kenya managers and heads of various departments will share their experiences and challenges for future considerations.
“It's all about coming up with a process or a plan that can work. So today we are collecting the information that was experienced on the ground and see if whatever we had was appropriate to adjust accordingly,” Ogolla observed.
“We want to find out if there is anything we can do better to give us an edge over our competitors. It's about refining our plan for the future. We've not had such a session before.”
Ogolla said they were keen to depart from past practices where reports gathered dust on the shelves.
“People usually go for the games, come back with the reports that nobody bothers to look at,” he pointed out.
“We want to see how well we can implement the reports for future use. In my opinion, I want us to come up with a proper document, more or less a policy that can guide people in the future in terms of managing the games.
He attributed Kenya's impressive show in Birmingham to appropriate management and athlete selection, coupled with government support.
“The qualification process was well funded and well managed by the government and that exposed our teams a lot. At the end of the day, the teams that did their selection here at home gave us good quality athletes,” Ogolla said.
“Of course, having gone through 45 days at camp, with additional team support members like the Elite Commission who provided mental skills training, physiotherapy, and nutrition, also made us perform well,” he added.
He said selections were done in the right way.
“We got the right athletes and we were given the right managers who co-operated and understood what they were doing.
“In the future, if we can enhance other components besides the physical preparations of the team, then we can continue doing well,” Ogolla quipped.
Edited by Tony Mballa.