Seven para-athletes are scheduled for international classification at the Tunis 2020 World Para Athletics Grand Prix planned for June 26- 28 in Tunisia.
Bronze medalists Hannah Ng’endo (T12) and Henry Kiprono (T13) who competed in the women’s T11, T12, T13 1,500m and men’s in the T11, T12, T13 5,000m were scheduled for classification review but missed the timeline.
This is after they missed out in their disability classification timeline of the recently held 5th International Para Athletics Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco (February 27-29).
Kenya National Paralympics Committee’s technical director, Matthew Mugenya said: “They missed the process because the KNPC could not book them within the classification timeline. At the time, the Ministry of Sports had not confirmed the team funding so KNPC could not list them for international classification.”
The seven include Muthini Augustino Kilonzo (F11), Lokedi John Toroitich (T12), Muricho Wilfred Laisikwa (T37), Wambua Joseph Kyaka (T37), Karanja Joseph Kamau (T37), Yego Ronald Kipkoech (T37) and Kipruto Felix (T46).
“Though they were allowed to participate in the Marrakesh Meeting, International Paralympics Committee has required them to undergo international classification before they compete in another IPC sanctioned event,” said Elijah Mwandihi, the secretary-general of KNPC.
Meanwhile, the period to attain 2020 Paralympic Games qualification slots through the world ranking system ends on April 1 and Kenyans will be hoping that their performances in Marrakesh will be enough to qualify them to the quadrennial extravaganza in Japan.
International Paralympic Committee will pick the top six athletes in each medal event from the rankings for the Tokyo Showpiece. In last November’s Dubai World Championships, all top four athletes from each medal event qualified for Tokyo Paralympics slated for August 25 and September 6.
The last qualification process will be the High-Performance Slot Allocation that ends on August 2, 2020. And this will be determined by the athletes' overall performance at the continental and other international open championships.
“In this qualification process, consideration will be given to top 10 athletes but will also depend on the deficit in the hosting country’s capacity,” added Mugenya.
Kenya has not entered a team in the upcoming Dubai 2020 World Para Athletics Grand Prix-cum- Fazza International Athletics Championships set for March 14 - 17
