Kenya’s captains urge speedy return of sports

Kenya’s team captains fear they might be under-prepared for the Olympic Games if the Government’s ban on sporting activities continues to remain in force.

As global sport returns, Kenya’s sportsmen have been kept off the courts and pitches following a delay in the formulation and release of rules that would guide safe resumption.

Kenya Lionesses captain Philadelphia Olando her counterpart Andrew Amonde of Kenya Sevens as well as Malkia Strikers’ Mercy Moim, Thursday urged the Ministry of Sports to act quickly.

Speaking during the National Olympic Committee of Kenya NOCK webinar, the three skippers said poor preparations would undeniably affect the teams’ performance during the Summer Games set for July 23 to August 8, 2021 in Japan.

“The ministry formed a committee to look into the possibility of how sports can resume but since June when the report was handed to Amina (Mohammed) nothing has been forthcoming and we’re worried because it’s less than a year to the Olympics.

“Our opponents are training every day but here in Kenya we don’t know what is happening. The pandemic should not blind us because no one will bother whether we are prepared or not next year,” Amonde decried.

His counterpart Moim weighed in: “Our problem has been poor preparations and now it’s worse because everything has stopped due to the pandemic. All these teams Malkia Strikers will face in Japan are familiar because we’ve faced them before and I’m sure with good preparations we can announce our comeback in Olympics in style.

She went on :“Is coronavirus making Kenya run out of ideas? We can adhere to the guidelines during our training because other countries have started to cope how to live with the pandemic.”

Malkia Strikers, Shujaa and Lionesses are the only Team Sports that have so far qualified for the postponed Summer Games.

Sports activities in Kenya were banned by the government four months ago over the coronavirus pandemic but Sports CS Amina Mohammed was on Friday evening set to unveil resumption guidelines, one month after receiving a return-to-action recommendations report from the advisory committee she formed in June.