Paralympics team to Olympics qualifiers unveiled

By Erick Ochieng’

Kenya National Paralympics Committee (KNPC) has named a team of 18 athletes to represent the country during Olympics qualifiers in Tunisia.

The final squad was picked during a closed door meeting on Tuesday evening after the national trials that ended on Tuesday evening at Nyayo National Stadium.

Those who qualified for the Tunisia trials were 75, yet the federation settled on the 18 athletes due to what it termed as stringent budget.

KNPC officials told Fever- pitch that their selection for the final squad was pegged on world ranking standards in the various categories.

"We were picking the athletes based on performance pegged to the world ranking, many had scored the London’s A qualifying mark and a few in the B. It is unfortunate that we had to leave out many athletes who are able to pass the contest in Tunisia, we were sure of winning gold medals at the Olympics," said Ronald Milare, KNPC Secretary General.

However, it was sad that the federation failed to recognise athletes who have already qualified for London in some of the categories.

One such athlete axed from the Tunisia-bound squad is the 2007 All Africa Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics 1500m gold medalist Samuel Muchai since he had already qualified for the London Olympics.

Already 16 other Kenyan paralympians have cut a ticket to London, following their qualification in New Zealand and other world events last year.

"We decided to give new athletes and those who have not qualified in any category a chance to travel to Tunisia," said Milare.

But KNPC has stated the list is subject to change should they get funds to support more athletes.

The federation thanked the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs for giving them Sh7.5 million to manage the qualifications, however it said this was inadequate and this explained why they dropped many able and athletes.

The federation is now appealing to well wishers to come forward and sponsor the team.

The selected team reported for residential camp at YMCA in Nairobi’s South C on Wednesday ahead of proper training beginning today at Nyayo National Stadium.

The team leaves the country on March 20 for the Sixth International Athletics Meet in Tunisia which runs between March 22-29.

The event will be used by African countries to qualify for this year’s London Summer Olympics.