Team Kenya will hope to forget their troubles in Lagos, Nigeria when the Africa Senior Athletics Championships start in Asaba this morning. The Kenyan team spent the whole of yesterday camping at the Murtala Mohammed Airport’s domestic flights wing after failing to secure a flight to Asaba.
The team, under the leadership of team manager Abraham Mutai arrived in Lagos on Monday, ahead of today’s championships but ran into headwinds with the toughest of conditions, failing to secure a flight to the venue. This forced them to spend the nights in threes at Ibis Hotel and a long day yesterday sleeping on the Murtala Mohammed Airport’s floor.
By 6pm yesterday, only 22 athletes had secured a flight to Asaba with the rest of close to 100 strong contingent chasing after connection tickets led by AK CEO, Susan Kamau, Vice President in charge of competition Peter Mutwii and Mutai.
“The team remains focused despite the current situation,” said Mutai, adding: “We have made the necessary arrangements to cushion our athletes from mental anguish as we seek to surpass our performance from Durban two years ago.”
A host of the participants were until late yesterday still holed up at the Murtala Mohammed Airport including Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Namibia and Benin.
Coach Julius Kirwa said: “The experience has destroyed the athletes ahead of the competition. Nigeria were not ready for these championships. We don’t know who is in charge. We haven’t even had someone from the Local Organising Committee to explain to us what is happening.”
However, the coach was full of praise for the athletes for their perseverance. “This team has shown a great deal of maturity and I want to thank them for keeping a cool head despite the challenges of missing out on lunch and ‘breaking their ribs’ sleeping on the floor.”
“The competition starts tomorrow but we are not even sure of our chances,” Kirwa added: “ As coaches, we were supposed to attend a technical meeting to verify on our list of participants but we have missed out. We are fearful of having our athletes failing to get accreditation.”
He asked Kenyans to pray for the team at this time of adversity. “I have never experienced this kind of turmoil,” said world 1500m champion Elija Manang’oi.
After rumours went round that Morocco had decided to return home from the championships, world 3,000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto said: “I have been hold up at this since morning. No lunch, no water, no place to train. I wish we could also take our flight back home.”