Rare talent: Meet Sabrina Wanjiku
Audrey Miheso
National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Noc-K) president Paul Tergat has paid glowing tribute to Sabrina Wanjiku, Kenya’s sole participant at the World Ski Championship currently taking place in Cortina, Italy.
After having numerous interviews with the leading sports media houses in Europe, Tergat stated that Sabrina was a great sports ambassador for Kenya.
“The kind of media interest and following she has drawn in this event can only be matched by the same following she got when she competed at the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018,” Tergat told People Sport.
He added: “She is certainly someone who is making our country be known around the world.
Having been recognised and appointed in 2018 as a UN environment ambassador as well, it greatly underscores the often-stated fact that Kenya’s sports people are the biggest assets of promoting the country.”
With the coronavirus pandemic having hit the country hard especially the tourism sector, Sabrina’s activities are slowly painting the Kenyan picture on the global map.
“I have toured the city of Cortina this morning and after every few steps someone is interested in knowing about Kenya’s participation in the Ski championship and Sabrina is a name everyone is easily associating with,” Tergat said.
He said the Olympic body would continue supporting the athlete and hopes that her return to competition now, soon after recovering from an injury in October will give her the platform to continue her effective preparation for the Winter Olympics scheduled for Beijing next year.
At 22 years old, Sabrina has already competed in numerous events where she excelled.
She was the sole flag bearer in the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018 and before that the Youth Winter Olympics, Lillehammer 2016 where she finished in top 25 in all her events.
She was also first placed at the Slovenia Super-G championships in 2019 and emerged the winner at the International African World Championships in 2019.
“We are also happy to note that we have gotten a lot of interest from other Kenyans participating in winter sports and welcome them to intensify their training so that they can represent the country in more international events,” said Noc-K Secretary General Francis Mutuku.
He added: “Of immediate interest, a young man, Dennis Ondiba, who is a cross country skiing athlete based in Czech Republic, and will be participating in the qualifiers of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships coming up later in the month.
We’ll keep Kenyans informed in the coming days about these events, in the hope that these athletes going against the odds will inspire even more to come up.”
