Athletics Kenya (AK) has held a conference on preparations of the upcoming Olympic Games to discuss main concerns about the venue of the event, criteria of the selection, list of athletes who will be competing, and rules and regulations governing trials of the event.
Athlete Kenya Chef de Mission for team Kenya, Paul Mutwii said that the athletes will be selected on merit and the performance they display during the trials and they will also be required to abide with doping regulations before going for any world competition.
“As a Federation, we are working to ensure adequate preparation for team Kenya for the upcoming Olympic Games. So far, a total of 49 athletes have been selected by the technical committee that manages competitions of Athletics Kenya,” he said.
Speaking at the conference, National Olympic Committee Kenya (NOCK) Executive Member and deputy of the commission Barnabas Korir announced that the competition venue of the trials for the Olympic will take place at Nyayo National stadium.
He said that discus, javelin and shotput will be hosted at Kasarani Stadium in order to avoid grass damage of Nyayo National Stadium since AK is preparing for a championship that will take place at the stadium in early September.
Korir added that Athletics Kenyan constitution indicates that the top two athletes will be selected automatically then the rest will be selected through a panel of selectors. He pointed out that number three will also be considered through their prior performance and consistency.
Korir who was speaking on Wednesday at Nyayo National Stadium during a conference for the preparation of trial Olympic games said that the conference is addressing issues of the competition that has been going on, the coming Olympic in August while adding that towards August 10 there will be undertraining championship in Peru-Lima.
He explained that when an athlete does not meet the required time, the federation will allow other athletes to try and qualify within the stipulated period until June 30 before the window is closed for entries and those who qualify for number one and two will be picked.
“When it comes to doping, we are still reviewing which events will run under rule 15 which requires that federations observe the invited athletes as stipulated by AIU and Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK),” he stated.
“ADAK and AIU will upload the testing in their system and the athletes who have been selected must collect the bip numbers a day before competition since no coach will be allowed to pick the bip number for the athletes,” he said.
He noted that the competitions in Kenya is very stiff and urged Kenyans to go and watch on the selected athlete teams that will be selected on June14 and 15 to represent the country in Paris.
By Sharon Atieno
