Elite athletes need not undermine ‘Club Games’

Top track and field athletes earn tidy sums from endorsements, prize money and other promotional deals struck by their managers outside competition.

Appearance fees at meets, and also in road races, form a huge chunk of these athletes’ incomes.

As a World or Olympic champion, an athlete stands to earn a good amount as enticement to show up at competition, even when such an athlete could be struggling for form.

To be an Olympic champion, one has the advantage of four-year bragging rights before the next Games are hosted, with the reigning term for a world champion just two years.

For instance, Jamaican sprints legend Usain Bolt used to earn between $200,000 and $250,000 (Sh20-25 million) in his prime, just to show up for a 10-second race at a meet, while Tyson Gay earned as much as $100,000 (Sh10 million) in his heyday as “appearance fees.”

These figures are besides the prize money and other incomes generated during and out of competition and bonuses from shoe companies.

That’s why Kenyan athletes must take all international competitions seriously, even if they may not be offering good packages, or no prize money at all, like the Commonwealth Games which, unlike the World Championships, have no cash rewards for medallists.

It’s disgusting to hear top athletes claim that the ‘Club’ games, as the Commonwealth Games are popularly referred to, are a “small” competition, not worth showing up for.

Which partly explains why Kenya is struggling here in Gold Coast, trailing noisy neighbours Uganda on the medal count.

Because many of our top athletes gave these games a wide berth, preferring to instead spruce up for the rich IAAF Diamond League circuit and big city marathons.

You will see them in droves when Doha and Shanghai host the opening rounds of the 2018 IAAF Diamond League next month, where they are assured of decent payments running for shoe company rather than country.

That world champions Hellen Obiri (5,000m) and Conseslus Kipruto (steeplechase) decided to show up in Gold Coast, despite huge demand for them on the IAAF track and field circuit, is a positive move that will help Kenya fight to sustain our enviable reputation as one of the best track and field teams in the world.

Success here will offer them bigger bargaining power. In the long run, they will be big winners.

The pair also told me on Monday that they would also be on the flight to Nigeria for the Africa Championships in July, which should be music to the ears of the Nigerian organisers who are dying to have big names help spur the masses through the turnstiles in this football-mad country that’s struggling to revive its athletics heritage.

“There is no such thing as a small championship,” Kipruto, also the Olympic champion told me yesterday as he battled to shed off the jet lag after landing in Australia.

“As long as I qualify to be part of the Kenyan team, I will honour any international assignment, from the Africa Championships to the Olympic Games. All these games are important,” he said.

Obiri too had to make time off her busy schedule for her first appearance “Down Under” very much aware that a Commonwealth Games title added to her world title in the 5,000m will hold her and Ricky Simms, her manager, in good stead when negotiating for appearance fees on the global circuit.

“This is the first time I’m competing in Australia and these games are special to me,” she said on Monday.

With Bolt having called time of his great career, the presence in Gold Coast of Jamaica’s other sprints sensation Yohan Blake, along with Botswana’s 200m and 400m star Isaac Makwala and Kenya’s javelin silver medallist from the 2014 Glasgow games, Julius Yego, among others, has no doubt spiced up these Commonwealth Games.

It shouldn’t be always about the money, but also about putting on a decent show for self and country.

And then again, after all, the title “Commonwealth champion” will most certainly attract more suitors to the bargaining table.

It’s a win-win situation.