Commonwealth Games: NOCK-K targeting 150 athletes

The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) is aiming at sending a contingent of at least 150 athletes for the upcoming Commonwealth Games slated for July 28- August 8 in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

NOC-K secretary general Francis Mutuku said Kenya’s team for the Games has so far secured 133 slots comprising the 94; the quota allocated to Kenya in individual sports.

Similarly, three team sports have already secured qualification including the men’s rugby team (13) and the men’s and women’s basketball 3x3 (8).

The women’s hockey team is the latest entrants in the contingent having secured qualification at the recently concluded Africa championships held in Ghana where they secured bronze medal.

Mutuku expressed optimism more team sports will secure qualification in the coming months as qualifications take shape.

“We have so far 133 slots and our target is to have a contingent of about 150 athletes. We are very happy that our women’s hockey team has secured qualification and we still hope more team sports will qualify.

“The women’s rugby team and also the basketball 5s aside are some of the teams we still hope will qualify for the Games,” Mutuku told Citizen Digital on the sidelines of the Sports Journalists of Kenya seminar held in Naivasha last weekend.

At the same time, Mutuku revealed that they intend to set up training camps for the qualified teams by April. He further stated that they are only waiting for the approval of their budgets.

 “At the moment we are waiting for the steering committee to be constituted and once that is done we hope our budget will be approved which will then give us the green light to start preparing the teams. We intend to have the camps running as early as April so that our teams can have adequate preparations,” he said.

Apart from the Commonwealth Games, Mutuku also disclosed that the committee has also laid out plans ahead of the African Youth Games that will be staged in Cairo, Egypt in August.

“We had initially started training camps for the young athletes; however the onset of Covid-19 forced us to suspend the program. In order to step up our preparations for the Africa Youth Games we intend to continue with the camps when the schools close for the April holidays,” Mutuku said.

Mutuku also disclosed that they are changing their approach by embracing technology with the application of sports science in their programs.

“This is something we are taking very seriously; we are now seeking to rely on data and statistics to trace the performance of athletes which we hope will go a long way in improving our performance going forward,” he said.