Chaos as Yego’s ticket to Rio goes missing

Travel plans of the third batch of Team Kenya to the Rio 2016 Olympics were thrown into disarray on Sunday morning when athletes initially boycotted to board their flight in protest over the missing ticket of world Javelin champion, Julius Yego, to Brazil.

Yego, who has been vocal against the treatment of the athletes, was stunned when he arrived at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport only to find he had no ticket.

National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock) officials could not produce it leading to the protests that saw the team holed up at the airport for a couple of hours before they later boarded the flight to Angola.

After much inquiry and a series of phone calls the You Tube Man was allowed by Kenya Airways to board the flight to Luanda without a ticket as officials scrambled to obtain one for him.

“Am defeated on this!! I dnt have a ticket !! What’s not happening here!” the distraught Commonwealth and two-time African champion posted on Facebook.

“I’ve accepted to travel to Angola and see what happens from there. I will let you know,” the Beijing 2015 world champion said before he joined the rest in boarding the flight to Angola.

“Such behaviour should not happen, remember when we had the opening ceremony for the camp in Eldoret, Honourable Wesley Korir mentioned the disappointment we are getting from the management and our issues we as athletes were facing, he was dismissed that he was just politicising matters.

“What Korir was saying was real because he did it as our captain because we had given him the mandate. See what has happened and it’s very unfortunate that some people just disappoint our Government and our Country and they are few elements, and we need to get rid of them we don’t need to have them in management positions,” the bitter Yego further complained.

Two-time world marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba and Beijing World men 1500m silver medallist, Elijah Manangoi were other members of the largest group of competitors to have issues with their tickets.

Meanwhile, USA based sprinter Calvin Nkanata is said to have arrived in Rio but found he has no accreditation and therefore, cannot access the Olympics Village and has been put up at the Kenyan embassy.

However, Ndereba who was responsible for the athletes documentation says that Nkanata had asked to be mailed his accreditation.

“I’m not sure of what is going on with Nkanata, have been trying to reach him but his mobile phone has been off, while in Eldoret I had his accreditation, he later asked me to send it of which I did although it was a little bit late,” the two-time Olympics silver medallist told.

The development drew sharp reactions with calls for Nock officials to step down gathering steam with #Yego and #IStandWithYego trending on micro blogging site Twitter.

“For now, we wish our athletes all the best as they go to Rio and its our hope they will compete well. However, when they return, these people must go. The whole administration is rotten.

“First, the Team Manager who travelled ahead of the team has been deported. How did he travel ahead of the team? Now we have athletes stranded at the airport. Is this the best way to motivate athletes?” Professional Athletes Association of Kenya Nairobi secretary, Julius Ndegwa told Citizen Digital on phone.

The shocking development is the latest gaffe by Nock officials after Yego complained bitterly about his coach being omitted from Sunday’s travel programme.

Fellow world champions,  Asbel Kiprop and Hyvin Kiyeng, Beijing 2015 silver medallists Faith Chepng’etich and Caleb Mwangangi as well as 2008 Beijing Olympics champion, Brimin Kipruto decided to make their own travel arrangements.

Story developing