State of mind will be key to Team Kenya success in Games
What you need to know:
- Team Kenya’s chef de mission Stephen Soi is expected to arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday ahead of Friday’s delegates registration meeting that will confirm all entries for the Games.
- He was the first member of the Kenyan delegation to leave Nairobi on Wednesday night.
With Kenya’s flights to the Rio Olympics taking off from this week, the athletes’ psychological state of mind will be the crucial game-changer at the August 4-21 global sporting showcase.
Team Kenya’s chef de mission Stephen Soi is expected to arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday ahead of Friday’s delegates registration meeting that will confirm all entries for the Games.
He was the first member of the Kenyan delegation to leave Nairobi on Wednesday night.
But as the Games draw closer, the Kenyan contingent is at sixes and sevens, distracted by the happenings on the court corridors and in camp, with a leading manager and coach both likely to miss the extravaganza owing to court cases. Federico Rosa of Rosa Associati and coach Claudio Berardelli are both facing doping-related charges.
Between them, they have at least 12 of Kenya’s medal hopefuls in their stables. The Italy-based Rosa Associati stable handles six athletes including New York Marathon champion Stanley Biwott, Paris Marathon title holder Visiline Chepkesho and Jemima Sumgong, winner of this year’s London Marathon.
Others are world 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, world 10,000m bronze medallist Paul Tanui and Bedan Karoki, a silver medallist at both the World Cross Country and World Half Marathon championships.
Berardelli, who decamped from Rosa Associati last year to join Demadona Sports Promotions run by another Italian, Gianni Di Madonna, coaches former world 800 metres champion Eunice Sum and Commonwealth 5,000 metres title holder Mercy Cherono.
While most of the athletes from the two stables spending valuable time in courtrooms, swimmer Talisa Lanoe is busy fine-tuning in Miami, USA, after being cleared by world swimming federation, FINA, after controversy over the selection of Kenyan swimmers.
Her selection was not without controversy after Rebecca Kamau also staked her claim for a place in the Rio team, with Fina explaining their decision to clear Lanoe and Hamdan Bayusuf for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, the boxing team’s Nakuru camp has been awash with protests over the late arrival of training kit and poor training conditions.
In swimming, Pedro Adrega, Fina’s Olympic Games entries co-ordinator, explained in a letter to the National Olympic Committee of Kenya that Kamau’s ‘B’ standard qualification didn’t meet the Olympic threshold.
“The OST/B times from your swimmer Rebecca Kamau in the women’s 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley would not be sufficient for an invitation from Fina,” he said.
“The national choice of Kenya, communicated to Fina, was for Mr Bayusuf among men and for Ms Lanoe in the women’s field. As this selection was made in accordance with the rules, Fina naturally validated this choice,” Pedro explained.
On the track, 2008 Olympic champion Kiprop confessed that his rather dull performance in Monaco at the Herculis Diamond League meeting was due to the tribulations facing his manager, fears shared by Rosa Associati's Gabriele Rosa.
“Our six athletes are not in the right frame of mind. I’m disappointed because I’ve spent over 10 million Euros in Kenyan athletics in the last 26 years,” Gabriele, who started off his stable with legends Moses Tanui and Paul Tergat told Daily Nation Sport on telephone from Italy.
