NOCK won’t halt team Kenya’s preparations despite coronavirus fears
National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) acting Secretary General (SG) Francis Mutuku has confirmed that Olympics preparations for teams and athletes that have already qualified for the Summer Games will continue despite coronavirus fears.
At the same time, NOCK unveiled George Kimani as team Kenya’s Strength and Conditioning (S&C) consultant for a period of 10 months.
The coach is set to lead athletes who have qualified for the games, and their coaches, in an elaborate programme to ensure they are at their best ahead of the competition.
Mutuku said NOCK’s Executive Committee stands guided by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and thus the decision to continue with preparations.
However, the disciplines that are yet to travel for their qualifiers stand to lose on those chances if the events are not postponed by the respective continental governing bodies.
“The IOC remains committed to ensuring the games will go ahead as planned and we stand guided by that. IOC is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on this and as NOCK, we are also committed to preparing our teams for the same,” said Mutuku.
“On the same breath, we have a government directive to restrict travel in and out of the country. As such, several athletes have missed their qualifiers.
This is very unfortunate but for the interest of both the athlete and fellow countrymen, we have to adhere to the ministry’s directive,” added Mutuku, while confirming that the men’s beach volleyball team, like their female counterparts, will not travel to Gambia for the second round of qualifiers.
Mutuku, however, hopes that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, continental governing bodies for various Olympics sports that were yet to hold their qualifiers will halt the competitions.
He confirmed that judo qualifier that was set for this month had been postponed for 30 days.
So far, men’s rugby sevens team (Shujaa), their female counterparts (Lionesses), women’s volleyball team Malkia Strikers, two boxers and a tae-kwon-do player have qualified for the Summer Games. Two swimmers are set to benefit from wild cards.
Kimani, who has worked as a S&C coach with Kenyan rugby for close to 12 years, is expected to design a programme for these athletes and their coaches. The programme is also expected to extend beyond the Olympics.
“Since we are working with professionals, for now we have entered a 10-month long partnership due to budgetary constraints.
The consultant has been working with Shujaa and Lionesses alongside other individual athletes on a voluntary basis for the last year and will extend these services to other teams now,” said Mutuku.
