Nock to decide on tentative budget for Tokyo Games

The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) General Assembly will meet on November 29 to approve the tentative budget for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

This is after Nock and the 17 federations that are seeking to have athletes qualify for the Summer Games met yesterday at Nock’s Nairobi headquarters and came up with a working budget.

“What we have received from the federations are their collated budgets. We want to extract only the Olympic budgets. The assembly will approve the final document,” said Nock acting secretary general Francis Mutuku.

“We don’t want to give out figures that will raise issues thereafter.”

Mutuku said they will present the budget to the Ministry of Sports to jump start preparations for the Games scheduled to be held between July 24 to August 9 in the Japanese capital.

Mutuku said the aspect of the Sports Fund’s support for the federations was discussed at great length.

“It was noted that various parties have adopted different ways of expressing their feelings about the process,” said Mutuku.

The meeting mandated Nock and Kenya National Sports Council to step in and resolve the impasse between the Ministry for Sports and federations over lack of funding.

“They will look into this matter with a view of presenting to the Ministry of Sports proposals on how best to make the process effective and efficient,” said Mutuku.

Mutuku pointed out that save for special cases like women’s sevens rugby and volleyball, other federations will be required to source for funds from the government to cater for their qualifying processes.

Nock will only take full charge after the teams have qualified.

Mutuku explained that the meeting also formed the first of the management team for Tokyo 2020 Olympics where the federations’ representatives seat.
“They will later on be substituted by appointed team managers,” said Mutuku.

The federations presented the status of their qualification for the Olympics after the African Games which served as a qualifying event for most disciplines.

The federations included badminton, boxing, beach volleyball, karate, volleyball, judo, table tennis, tae kwondo, wrestling, cycling, swimming, handball, athletics, tennis, golf, football and rugby.

Mutuku said 46 athletes have so far qualified for the Tokyo Summer Games including 28 from athletics, women sevens rugby, two swimmers and a karateka.

More qualifiers are expected in athletics when the national trials are held on June 20 and 21 at Kipchoge Keino Stadium, Eldoret.

Kenya Swimming Federation chairman Patrick Muyah said a woman and a man have received the universality wild cards, having failed to get a qualifier through the time standard.

“The situation can change if we are to get a swimmer attaining the required standards by June next year,” said Muyah.

Kenya’s sevens men’s rugby team will try to qualify starting tomorrow in South Africa. The women’s football team, Harambee Starlets, play Zambia in the fourth round of their qualifiers tomorrow at Kasarani.

One karateka got automatic qualification through ranking. Most federations have qualification events between November and February.