African champ Sawe deni*d venue access
Controversy surfaced after Africa high jump champion Matthew Sawe and his coach Moussa Fall were denied access to train from Kasarani Stadium yesterday.
The 29-year-old who has a personal best of 2.30 and his French-born coach couldn’t access the facility to train after the Kasarani stadium official said a letter was needed to have the national champion preparing for the world championships, use stadium.
With the Africa Deaf Athletics Championships taking a break on Thursday, Sawe had hoped to make good use of the facility, but it never to be.
“Just like any Team Kenya athlete, I think he deserves to use the facility. We have been told not to show up at the facility without a proper letter from the Ministry of Sports.
“Time is not on our side, since the championships are supposed to start in under eight days,” said the coach who guided the athlete to win silver during the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morroco.
Head coach Julius Kirwa said the order was strange even to him since the entire team is supposed to train at Kasarani Complex.
“I am sad because the coach and his athlete have been called intruders. That is very wrong since we are all Team Kenya. I will take the matter forward immediately,” he added.
Due to the limited time and convenience, Fall said it was not viable to take the athlete to his France base for more training.
“We have to use the limited time we have to try and improve on certain technical aspects. I think that with proper support, more is to come from Sawe in Doha as well as 2020 Olympics (in Tokyo, Japan),” he concluded.
