North Eastern Athletics Kenya region have vowed to drop their also-runs tag in the near future if efforts by the regional administrators is anything to go by.
The region, headquartered in Garissa town, has seen a decline in not only athletics but also other sports disciplines owing to various factors.
“Our situation is occasioned by a myriad of challenges,” said Athletics Kenya North Eastern secretary general Mohammed Siyad when he accompanied Athletics Kenya vice president in charge of competitions Paul Mutwii in distributing food rations and cash stipends to athletes training for the Under 20 World Championships over the weekend.
“First, we lack of training facilities including a tartan track and other implements necessary for basic athletics training. The weather conditions in North Eastern is als very hot, which is not favourable for athletes.”
In addition, he said, cultural practices, religion and lack of support from education stakeholders has been a big stumbling block.
“We have a problem recruiting athletes to participate in athletics because of cultural beliefs. Girls are not being supported by parents, teachers and religious leaders to take up sports,” said Siyad.
“For us to tap talent, we need to start at the primary school level. Unfortunately, we lack educational leaders, including principals, who take sports seriously.”
“The County Government has also failed us. They have done little in sports development, which is quite expensive especially when it comes to construction of facilities. We have talked to a number of county officials enough times to see if they can get us a few tracks where these young boys and girls can train but nothing is forthcoming. We have talents but we don’t have the support to help the young people achieve their dreams,” he added.
In their quest to give inspiration to their athletes, Siyad said they are encouraging their athletes to always fight and finish their races whenever they go for championships as opposed to the massive DNF’s they have been registering over the years.
“Our athletes always run short of breath whenever they run in altitude in Nairobi during national championships, forcing them to drop out midway through their events,” observed Siyad.
“Recently, we have had our athletes finish their races and this is a step in the right direction. This is a big achievement. We are moving forward and God-willing, we will produce a champion from this area in the near future.”
He said they are also embarking on a number of activities to help open up the region to sports and athletics in particular since football is quite popular in the advent of the English Premier League.
“We have the Garissa University Memorial event as well as a 10km road race, which are crucial in pulling our people towards athletics and hopefully help more and more young people take keen interest,” observed Siyad.
He said they are giving themselves at least two years to have an athlete from the region grace a major championship. This, he says, will present a role model, a rare spectacle from the region.
“We are also trying to use religious and educational leaders to change the narrative that a boy or a girl cannot participate in sports. We are changing things gradually and we hope to get support from all the stakeholders including County Government, teachers, parents and religious leaders,” he concluded.
