Bumper rewards for Gold Coast Games medallists

The Government has kept its promise to reward the country’s top performers in sports.

The Sports Ministry yesterday disbursed cash awards to medallists in last month’s Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa gave out the cash awards amounting to Sh12.2 million to the 17 medallists.

Gold medallists were handed Sh1million, silver medallists Sh750,000, while bronze medallists received Sh500,000.

“As much as we did not perform well as expected, we appreciate our sports men and women and that’s why we are rewarding them,” said Mr Echesa.

At the same time, the Sports CS announced that Kasarani Stadium, which has been under renovation, was now ready to host matches.

The awards come amid allegations of anti-doping rule violations by the country’s top athletes.

During the award ceremony in Nairobi, National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock) President Paul Tergat and his Athletics Kenya counterpart, Jackson Tuwei, urged the authority mandated to fight doping to change tack.

“The despair in track and field is casting a shadow on our country. For many generations Kenya was known to be a world beater,” Tergat said.

“As a former athlete, I’m disturbed by the doping menace. More measures and new strategies need to be put in place to curb this vice,” he said.

Tergat, a former world marathon record holder, urged national federations to take seriously team selection for national duties.

The Team Kenya captain to the World and Commonwealth Games, 1500m champion Elijah Manangoi, urged the Government to provide more support to sports men and women.

“We are delighted with the support from the Government, but more is needed in terms of logistics when the team is preparing for national duties,” said Manangoi.