Over 1000 participants from 22 African countries will from Saturday begin the battle to secure their tickets to next year's Deaflympic Games in Brazil during African qualifiers in Nairobi.
The championship will feature eight basketball and 16 deaf football teams who will face off against each other at the Moi Stadium, Kasarani from September 11-25.
Sports Principal Secretary Joe Okudo said the country is privileged to go down in history as the host of the first-ever African qualifiers for the Deaflympics.
"The Deaflympics Championships comes in the background of the just concluded World Athletics Under-20 Championships that we successfully hosted and topped the medal table. We also participated in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic games and scored top in Africa. This therefore demonstrates our capacity to emerge champions of this qualifiers," Okudo said.
The PS, however, regretted that fans will once again miss out on another world championship on home soil because of the need to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.
"As has been the case with the recent global competitions, the Deaflympic ball games qualifiers will be a no spectator event. Additionally, we will conduct regular Covid-19 testing on our athletes and officials as we continue to engage in robust public health awareness campaigns to ensure your safety and security during this event," he said.
Kenyan football and deaf teams have been in training for the past few weeks at Moi Stadium, Kasarani in preparation for the event.
The two-week Deaflympic Games (May 1-15) will take place in the Brazilian city of Caxias do Sul. Turkish city of Samsun hosted the last edition of the games in 2017 during which Kenya was represented by 57 athletes.
Among the disciplines to be contested include swimming, judo, wrestling, football, athletics, karate, shooting and taekwondo.
