Nock settles on Kurume for Team Kenya Olympics camp
What you need to know:
- Kurume City is approximately 1086km by road and 879km by air from the Japanese capital, Tokyo that will host the Summer Olympic Games from July 24 to August 9
- Nock, who expect at least 200 athletes from various disciplines to use the facility, gave the Kurume City representatives a list of qualified athletes to help them plan accordingly
- Nock and Kurume City entered into a partnership two years ago and after the successful talks held in Nairobi
It’s now clear that Team Kenya will pitch camp at Kurume City, Fukuoka, Japan ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
This is after the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) and Kurume City governors met on Tuesday in Nairobi with Athletics Kenya, the main protagonists having given Kurume thumbs up.
Speaking after the closed-door meeting, at Panari Hotel, Nock president Paul Tergat said the Kenyan athletes will benefit from the Kurume City facility since they will acclimatise ahead of the expected hot conditions in Tokyo.
“Today’s meeting was to iron some issues, go through the draft and we have agreed that all disciplines that will qualify, will be accommodated apart from Athletics alone, so we are looking at about 200 including the technical management,” said Tergat after he led the delegation from Kenya in the meeting with Hideki Noda, a senior advisor for Kurume Municipal Office Sports Division.
Kurume City is approximately 1086km by road and 879km by air from the Japanese capital, Tokyo that will host the Summer Olympic Games from July 24 to August 9.
Nock and Kurume City entered into a partnership two years ago and after the successful talks held in Nairobi, the partnership is set to be sealed in February next year while Team Kenya will report at the facility in May.
Nock, who expect at least 200 athletes from various disciplines to use the facility, gave the Kurume City representatives a list of qualified athletes to help them plan accordingly.
“This is part of the Road to Tokyo 2020 Olympics. We entered into a partnership with Kurume City since Tokyo will be very hot during the games, we will take our team there to train and acclimatize one month before we move to Tokyo,” Tergat said.
“Kurume City representatives’ presence shows the importance they are putting in in terms of collaboration between the two countries since even after the Olympics is over, we can still go on with this partnership in other business sectors,” said Tergat.
At least 45 athletes have already qualified for the Olympic Games consisting of two swimmers, 28 track and field athletes and the national rugby teams – men and women.
Tergat noted that Athletics Kenya will decide which events will put up in Kurume ahead of the games.
