African champ Shehzana wore improvised kit in Rio

Olympics debutant Shehzana Anwar’s Team Manager Tabassum Anwar cast fresh accusations at the embattled National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock) after she revealed the youthful archer used locally customized t-shirts as her makeshift Team Kenya kit at the Summer Games in Rio.

Anwar told Citizen Digital on Wednesday Nock failed to honour its promise to provide official kiting forcing her to spend Ksh4800 in purchasing two pairs of identical t-shirts and having them branded for the quadrennial showpiece occasion where Shehzana carried the Kenyan flag during its opening ceremony.

She also accused Nock of neglecting their duty of ensuring Shehzana was fully prepared for the 2016 Rio Olympics Games saying in the build-up to competitions they were forced to fund all the international competitions she participated in including the South African National Competition, Turkish National Competition and the 2016 World Cup (Antalya edition), also held in Turkey.

“I tried asking for kits and equipment from Nock but they kept telling me that they were yet to receive them. In Rio, we were given nothing as well and I had to use four marching t-shirts and brand them with each costing KSh1,200.

“They only refunded 1500USD (KSh152,700) for the air tickets and left everything else to us. but we had to cater everything else for ourselves.  The preparations were really expensive and we were to travel to Spain but it was too expensive so we had to settle for Turkey.” Tabassum told Citizen Digital.

The recently released Rio Probe Committee report acknowledges that Shehzana received training at Strathmore University in Nairobi which was nonetheless deemed insufficient to meet her archery range needs.

“It is the role of NOCK to prepare qualified athletes for the Olympics. However, for the two trips to South Africa and Turkey, NOCK only catered for Shehzana’s South Africa air travel. She paid for her own accommodation and airfare to and from Turkey. She had to buy her own competition equipment having not received any feedback from Nock on the budgetary requirements needed to prepare for the Games,” Anwar offered.

The committee also recommended that Nock should liaise with each federation to ensure that they get the right competition kits to avoid the archer or any other Kenyan athlete from competing in unbranded attire.

The 27-year-old Shehzana was ultimately knocked out of the competition by three-time Olympics gold medalist and five-time world champion Ki Bo Bae in the round of 64, halting her burning desire to emulate the sporting success of her father – Azar Anwar – who is a three-time national rally champion.