Tergat has what it takes to restore Kenya Olympic team’s lost shine

Scandals break out in Kenya with such regularity that the public can be forgiven for its short memory.

The handling of the Rio Olympics team, though, was a fiasco on a scale that should not be easily forgotten and which must not be forgiven.

There are few categories of Kenyans that project the country more positively than its world-beating athletes.

With the eyes of the world on such global events as the Olympics, Kenyan track and field champions hoist the nation’s flag aloft with impressive consistency, meaning Kenya is one of the most recognisable African countries.

Despite all that, the athletes are regularly treated with shocking disregard for their welfare. There have been complaints about unpaid allowances and poorly managed flight schedules for ages.

NUMEROUS JOYRIDERS

Rio was a mess on another level. Not content with leaving out many crucial officials from the travelling party and including numerous joyriders, National Olympic Council of Kenya (Nock) bigwigs even went so far as to steal the official kit allocated to the athletes.

It took the intervention of marathoner and MP Wesley Korir, who was also the team captain, to raise complaints before many athletes could receive their running gear.

Julius Yego, the self-taught javelin superstar, had to turn to social media to urge Kenyans to pressure the authorities to procure a ticket for his coach.

In Rio, everything turned out to be one massive mess. Coaches of the teams were not accredited to enter the Olympic village. When John Anzrah, a former Kenya and Africa sprint champion, who was in charge of the sprinting team, was lent a badge by an athlete to get some dinner in the official cafeteria, he was caught, asked to take a doping test and expelled from the games.

NO ACCREDITATION

This is what he told the Sunday Nation on arrival in Nairobi: “We left for Brazil last Sunday and arrived on the same day. When we went to the athlete’s village, five of us — including Catherine Ndereba and Joseph Mosonik (both part of the coaching staff) — found out that we had no accreditation,” he said.

“All this time we were staying in someone’s house and cooking our own food. I had to share a room designed for small children with Mosonik while Ndereba slept in the adjacent room.”

 It is right that prosecutors have pressed charges against some individuals in charge of the team. However, Nock has rejected demands from the International Olympic Committee for reforms including tackling the problem of doping. The IOC froze financial assistance to the body last month.    

It is the Kenyan way to complain about the order of affairs without entering the arena to press the case for reforms.

CLEAN TRACK RECORD

It’s a good thing to see someone that is well respected, has a clean track record and close knowledge of the athletics world like Paul Tergat has thrown his hat in the ring to seek to lead Nock in elections due in May.

I have only met the man once, around a decade ago, in a former life as a sports editor.

It was striking that walking in the streets, he was one of the few Kenyan athletes that will cause people to stop and stare.

With his feats from the mid 1990s, the marathon world record and numerous cross-country victories but perhaps above all the epic battles with Haile Gebrselassie at the Olympics, he was a celebrity in an age when there weren’t too many such figures.

There are some concerns about the team Tergat is running alongside. Many are members of federations that have been part and parcel of the rot in Nock. Will he really deliver on reforms when he is surrounded by such sharks?

DIRTY ARENAS

Athletics federations, like trade unions, are extremely dirty arenas where it is hard to bring in change. But Tergat has the stature not to need the backing of some of those tainted individuals and he should drop them from his team while retaining those with a clean track record.
It is unfortunate that the legendary Kipchoge Keino, despite the mess that the executives that hide behind him perpetrated in Rio, insists on seeking another term.

It would be a sad end to his career if he is humiliated at the polls and he should receive better counsel and step down.

There has been a trend around the world of younger athletes such as Seb Coe, the famous middle-distance runner who is now president of the world athletics body, the IAAF, and Haile Gebrselassie who now heads Ethiopia athletics federation, taking prominent roles in the leadership of sports bodies.

Electing Tergat would be one step towards cleaning a sector sorely in need of a new broom.
  
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