Team Kenya’s preparations shift to Miramas, France

Team Kenya's preparation phase will shift to France as the team will set camp in Miramas, a town in the south of France situated 621 Kilometres from Paris ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Former Kenyan athlete David Chirchir, the man behind the MOU between the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) and the township says the camp is already up and running having hosted Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala.

"When we had the indoor track we had to invite Ferdinand to come and run the first indoor in our meeting,” noted Chirchir.

"Now so far we have 15 Kenyan athletes in camp and what we need to do as Miramas is to pray that team Kenya and the associations like NOC-K and Athletics Kenya will cooperate with us so that we can help them.

"The facilities we have are free, they don't pay because the town has given to them," assured Chirchir.

Miramas boasts of an international standard indoor stadium, complete with an indoor warm up track and a state of the art gymnasium with modern equipment.

Miramas' meet race director Patrice Buffet says the township's indoor stadium is ready for use while also working on upgrades on the running track within the Miramas stadium complex to be fitted with technology to assist coaches in analysis.

"On this track there will be a smart track system with some equipment in the track so that we can measure for speed, for power and for strength.

"It is not easy because we have to anticipate a lot of things for facilities, for accommodation, for the shuttles and so, it is different working in France and working in Kenya," said Buffet.

Kenya's Taekwondo team has already had their first three-weeks training within the facilities while the shooting have had their first week of training camp as they gear up for the first round of Olympic qualifiers between January and May of 2024.

The rest of Kenya's qualified teams and athletes will all join camp by June 2024.

-       Additional reporting by Mike Okinyi.