Preps on course ahead of Paris 2024 Olympic Games, assures Mutuku

National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) Secretary General Francis Mutuku has assured the country of Team Kenya’s adequate preparedness ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris, France, between  July 26 and August 11 this year.

NOCK is planning for high-performance training for African champions Malkia Strikers in one of the European Nations to enable them to be in the best shape to give their nod in their third Olympic games.

Mutuku says they are targeting approximately 87 athletes to fly the Kenyan flag in this year’s global showpiece.

He also assured the committee of support for the athletes' training after they complained about the closure of Nyayo National Stadium.

“We couldn’t avoid the closure of Nyayo National Stadium because the Football Kenya Federation needs to meet deadlines of renovations for AFCON. We know Ulinzi Sports Complex does not meet the standards of World Athletics, but for training purposes, it will work.”

“We are also in talks with Athletics Kenya. Once the athletes qualify, we’ll have a plan for them.

“We’ll also put plans in place for our sprinters and field events athletes to train in France because we’ve been able to get an arrangement for facilities.”

Mutuku also assured of transparency in the funds allocated towards the facilitation of Team Kenya to the games.

“Since the 2016 Rio Olympics scandal, we’ve made progress in shunning the embezzlement of funds. We will be unveiling a partnership with an audit firm next week which will audit our finances and operations so that will ensure everything we do meets international standards.”

In terms of the composition of technical benches in the different teams, Mutuku said measures are in place to ensure the standards are met, but also decried the loopholes in sports federations like in volleyball and boxing, where respective presidents have assumed team manager roles.

“We have guided the Federations to ensure that all the coaches working with the teams meet Olympic standards. We have little say on who can be a team manager because, as currently constituted, they do not have a defined criterion, so if someone can manage the team, he/she can be forwarded by the federation.”

We need to give more specific guidelines on who can be a team manager. Following public outcries in the volleyball and boxing fraternities, we are engaging the concerned parties to rescind their decisions so that the public can have confidence in the management of the teams,” noted Mutuku.

Kenya Volleyball Federation and Kenya Boxing Federation have their president, Charles Nyaberi and Anthony Ombok Otieno, appointed themselves as team managers for their teams ahead of the Olympics.