Athletics Kenya & NOC-K confident of more sprinters joining Ferdinand Omanyala in Olympics qualification

Athletics Kenya & NOC-K confident of more sprinters joining Ferdinand Omanyala in Olympics qualification

Abigael Wafula 20:05 - 08.06.2024

Athletics Kenya and the National Olympic Committee of Kenya have insisted on being confident that more sprinters will qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games before the deadline later this month.

Athletics Kenya and the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) remain confident that more sprinters will qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games before the deadline elapses.

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the qualification and ranking period for all individual events - other than the 10,000m, marathon, combined events, and race walks - will be between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

For the 10,000m, combined events, race walks and relays, the qualification and ranking period will be between December 31, 2022 and June 30, 2024, while for the marathon the period will be between November 1, 2022 and April 30, 2024.

Athletics Kenya Nairobi chair Barnaba Korir revealed that the federation is not scratching heads because they have invested heavily in providing the sprinters with the right equipment to ensure they achieve the targets.

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“You can recall that in the last three months, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya and Athletics Kenya have tried everything possible to support sprinters.

“In fact, at one time, they stayed in the camp at the Nyayo National Stadium, they also went to South Africa which was sponsored by NOC-K to go and try to qualify in the relays.

“They were sent to Miramas and some of them are still there and they will be coming back so that they can also improve their times. They have been given every chance to go and qualify, especially the sprinters,” Korir said during a press conference.

He added that Athletics Kenya has invited other teams from Botswana, Uganda, and South Sudan to push Kenya to the limits in terms of qualifying for the relays.

Korir also noted that all hope is not lost since there will also be the Africa Senior Athletics Championships where sprinters will also be competing with the hope of attaining the qualifying time.

However, he was quick to note that they will not pressurize the athletes to qualify if it is not possible since Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala has already qualified and will be competing in the city of love.

“The federation will continue to see how they can support…In fact, in these trials, AK has invited the teams from Botswana, Uganda, and South Sudan and the purpose is to ensure the teams get the opportunity, especially in the relay, to see if they can qualify with other teams.

“We want the sprint events like the 100m to get every opportunity to qualify…we still have the African Championships and we want to see if they can still qualify. The sprinters have been given all the possible opportunities to qualify, and all the support so they can train and compete and AK has done its best.

“The dynamics are changing and there is more focus on sprints and field events and we want to increase more camps with the main focus on field events. AK is also securing other technical things for sprints like the starting blocks and other things that sprinters need,” he said.

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