Commonwealth Games - Glasgow : Kenya's Gold, Bleed and Ugly

2014 and it is exactly 60 years since a Kenyan sports personality made it to any international sporting event! And this event was the Commonwealth Games in 1954 ( had previously been known as British Empire Games).

Glasgow 2014 - image courtesy of glasgow.com

With such rich heritage and a storied past, the 2014 edition ought to have been a done deal for Kenyan sport but alas! It is another skewed performance from a contingent of 169 athletes and officials. A misnomer of the Commonwealth Games is that fierce competitors, Ethiopia and other North African countries do not participate.
But even without these countries, Glasgow exposed the scope of Kenya's famed athletes. Out of the 13 disciplines, only 3 managed to get to the podium.

Stand-Outs: 

1. Julius Yego – Javelin Gold standard – first ever field event Gold medal in major c’ships. Even without proper training facilities and technical support he keeps getting better;

Julius Yego - Golden Throw - www.getty.com

2. Eunice Sum – 800m – she's the reigning world champ and she turned up for the another sterling performance;3. Caleb Ndiku – 5000m – coming of age, he was named 2010 SOYA most promising athlete and showed why. Exit Ezekiel Kemboi too we have another performer...

Disappointments:

David Rudisha – 800m Silver - World/Olympic champ & WR holder, we expected nothing short of Gold, even with a poor season so far;

Jason Dunford – Swimming - he finally admitted frustrations/lack of Kenya's Swimming Federation support ( and no officials are sacked..???);

Kenya 7s team – after finishing 2^nd in the table standings in the preliminaries, they met their match in New Zealand who ended our first rugby Commonwealth medal chances

Special Mentions:

1. Conrad Nkanata – US-based sprinter – finished 3^rd in his 200m heat, with proper training he can be a future sprinter;
2. Benson Gicharu – Boxer – even with time running out for his amateur boxing career, he is still punching it out at major sports events

Kenya Sports (Mis)management:

The charade of Kenyan officials in managing the team continued. First it was delayed allowances due to athletes. Second was the kit issue with missing or delayed kit to Team Kenya.  Third was late accreditation which meant missed attendance by cyclist, David Kinjah among others. Fourth and it’s truly out of personal frustration was lack of technical/financial support as well as favouritism in team selection. These last were raised not just by non-traditional disciplines but also swimmers such as Jason Dunford who may have had his swansong representing the country in any sport.

Golden Girls - 3000m s'chase Kenyan trio

We have said this before and shall repeat it for the umpteenth time. Kenya’s sport management needs to change RADICALLY! Why have more than 10 disciplines and only 2-3 have any chance of winning medals? Can more investment be made on a few of these or if all disciplines are represented, get proper exposure to have winning chance(s).

•    Kitting – what business goes on with kit which has been acquired for national duty? Why should some official conveniently forget to order this in time? Other times they issue it to non-participants or stock it in local shops. Sponsors should also review such misdemeanor and cancel contracts for misallocated kits.
•    Allowances – we saw the embarrassment of African teams in World Cup. It did not even take a month before our own officials replicated that same template. Why should individual be charged with responsibility of managing team finances? In future all participants should supply account details and monies sent direct to them like regular pay.
•    Size of squad – how many officials are really needed to attend international events even when their disciplines have no chance of winning a bronze medal? Participation should be on how successful a sport is at regional, continental or international duty.
•    Technical/Financial details – for most disciplines Kenya has lost a semblance of international standards. From boxing, swimming to even some athletics events, the edge of advances in technical knowledge is lacking. Spotlight is on sports federations’ internal wrangles and lack of international best practice to compete at such levels.

As usual we shall be treated to excuses and made to forget what has become perennial under-achieving by our national team(s). As a nation,we need to demand accountability from those in charge of our sports bodies. The Government must also stop playing deaf and be more forceful in getting officials to straighten their act. 

It is no wonder that most athletes prefer running in Grand Prix events, others opting to quit even before their prime as a frustrated lot. See what is happening to the football fraternity? 

World Relays gives Kenyan Athletes 'Golden Shine'

This past weekend marked the inaugural World Relays under the auspices of IAAF hosted in the Caribbean island of Bahamas ( the natives called Bahamians, more like Bohemian Rhapsody...I digress).

World Relays Bahamas 2014 - image courtesy of www.iaaf.org

The 2-day event had some really good action for any sports and athletics enthusiasts. Stealing some of the attention for the more popular football (soccer in other quarters), was a huge gamble but for those few moments the Championships produced some sparkle. The c'ships had 10 events billed as the Golden Baton which included the more common and widely accepted

• 4 x 100m ( both men and women)
• 4 x 400m 

But also other races including;

• 4 x 200m  or 2 lap event
• 4 x 800m or 8-lap event
• 4 x 1500m or 15-lap event.

As expected some athletics powerhouses such as the US and Jamaica sent strong teams especially in the short(er) sprints. Kenya too sent very strong teams in what were expected to be its specialties in the middle races. After what might have been a fiasco in national team selection, the team redeemed itself winning 3 out of its targeted 4 Gold medals and each of those in World Record times. There was also special mention of the 4 x 400m Kenyan men's team which featured in the Final B ending up in the tail end of the proceedings. 

A few lessons too could be taken by the Kenyans from these Games;

a) Preparations - The national selection method employed by Athletics Kenya was not the most scientific and suited for this purpose. This led to an almost disjointed effort in preparing the team for the c'ships. In future, it would not hurt to make proper preparations for national selection and onward camp for participants.

b) Tactics- while we may not have been with the coaches and managers, some of the tactics employed  cost the team valuable points and wins. For example, the 4 x 800m women's race decision to run a fairly inexperienced Busienei in the first leg saw Kenya lose her position to lead and ultimately play catch up to the US team. 

c) More Country representation - being the inaugural c'ships not every country was able to send representatives and some sent some more junior and inexperienced runners. Beijing in 2015, you can be sure it will not be a walk-over even for Kenya even in the middle races that we seem to have such a stronghold. Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco and even Uganda will want to prove a point or two. We saw what is happening in the marathons and 10K races in other championships. And it is not just the Africans breathing down the necks of Kenyans, Russia, Romania and other European countries always fancy challenging Kenyan athletes.

Kenya's 4 x 1500m Women's team - image courtesy of www.iaaf.org

d) Track and Field Clubs - while Kenya has traditionally had no problem in producing talent especially for the middle and long distances, our performances in the shorter races of 400m, 200m and 100m have been dismal. Save for the occasional suprise in the 400m, the others don't seem to feature in our calendar. 

One way of encouraging this is forming running/sprint clubs that can be situated in 2-3 cities in the country. Rigorous training and exposure will see us in good stead. Investing in the necessary infrastructure such as tartan running tracks, gyms, sports scientists and nutritionists is integral too. The US has Santa Monica Track Club(which produced among others sprint legend Carl Lewis), Jamaica has the MVP Track and Field Club

(with women sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser in its stable). Why can't Kenya invest in one too?

e) Reward System - though this has been ongoing with the gold medal winners in major games such as Olympics and Commonwealth getting national honours, more can be done to earn our athletes their worth. The mileage enjoyed by their participation and winning is more than the fancy budgets and trips that tourism officials seek to justify for their activities. There has been talk of an Athletics Hall of Fame by Athletics Kenya but this ought to be a public-private partnership by all parties concerned.

For now let's enjoy the shine of winning 3 Gold medals and records to boot. In 2015, I don't see why Kenya should not bag 4 Gold medals and Bronze or two in the shorter races. Optimistic perhaps? 

Quick recap:

Kenya won Gold in the 4 x 800m (men), 4 x 1500m (men and women) and Silver in 4 x 800m (women).

In Related News:

When Safaricom Limited announced that it had secured the naming rights of Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi,  its current CEO Bob Collymore intimated that one of the areas of focus would be investing in the shorter races. This was echoing earlier sentiments made in 2012 when he was awarding the Olympic heroes. True to their word, the company sponsored the National Relay series which almost ended in confusion after Athletics Kenya couldn't agree on a proper formula for the competition. In future, national associations should have proper blueprints for events such as this. Having secured funding and sponsorship such as Safaricom's makes it easier to consult experts and host more successful events. 

For future Relay events, Athletics Kenya can do better by letting the respective branches come up with teams which can then compete at the series of trials in Nairobi and any other city deemed suitable. This will not only attract new talent but also expose potential athletes to specialisations beyond the individual races they usually do.

As for Safaricom Limited, your investment may start bearing fruit sooner than expected...