World School Games: Kenya to send two teams to China

Kenya will send only athletics and basketball teams to the 2020 World Schools Games primed for October 17 to 24 in Jinjiang, China.

The decision was made last week during the International Schools Federation (ISF) General Assembly held in Belgrade, Serbia where officials from the Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) were in attendance.

Kenya received an invitation to be part of the biennial championship for the first time last year and the ISF has already provided slots in 22 disciplines including athletics and football but KSSSA had yet to settle on a procedure for selecting its teams.

KSSSA secretary general David Ngugi who led the Kenyan delegation to Serbia, said with high number of participants expected to grace the championship, ISF could not allow all the featuring countries to send teams for each discipline on show.

“We are comfortable with two teams because we will prepare them adequately before the championship. China could not host all the countries with over 22 teams each,” he revealed.

Ngugi who was elected as an ISF executive member added that KSSSA will decide which gender will fly the country’s flag in basketball.

“We are yet to present the team which will represent us in basketball because it should be only one team either boys or girls but that will be discussed in the coming weeks. In athletics we were given five chances and that again will also be discussed,” he added.

Other disciplines that will be on show in China are Fencing, Jump, Rope, Archery, Swimming, Badminton, Aerobic, Gymnastics, Table Tennis,  Artistic, Gymnastics, Taekwondo, Chess, Rhythmic, Gymnastics, Wrestling, Diving, Judo and Wushu.

The host nation China has pledged to cater for accommodation charges as well as 80% of all flight costs for the African teams.

Kenya has never participated in the championship since it started in 1974 in Germany owing to lack of sponsorship.