Kenya's Rio-bound team refuses to leave without Julius Yego

PHOTO: COURTESY

NAIROBI: There was drama at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport yesterday morning when track and field athletes declined to board a plane to Rio de Janeiro.

The team declined to board the plane without javelin World champion Julius Yego. They only agreed when Mr Yego was finally given a ticket. Yego, unbelievably, had not been given a ticket, together with 1500m gold prospect Elijah Motonei Manangoi and Marathon legend and coach Catherine Ndereba.

While Mr Manangoi and Ms Ndereba's ticket hitch was sorted by the National Olympic Committee officials, it took the intervention of Kenya Airways for Yego to travel.

The spectacle at the airport is just an indication of the team's poor handling, ticketing and accreditation that has dogged the organisers. Recently, the athletes complained about their kits, saying they were oversize and of poor quality.

In Rio de Janeiro, 200m national record holder US-born Carvin Nkanata (20:14) has been denied participation after he showed up with a USA passport, a blunder Kenya Olympic Committee blamed on Athletics Kenya for failing to streamline the athlete's documentation.

And to rub salt to injury, Maj (Rtd) Michael Rotich, the track and field team manager, is on his way home from Rio de Janeiro after he was reportedly filmed offering to warn athletes about drug tests in exchange for a one-off fee of £10,000 (Sh1.3million).

Rotich is said to have been recorded undercover offering to tip off athletes over the timing of drugs tests. The claims will surely take the limelight away from Kenya's pride in Dr Kipchoge Keino, who was feted by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach with Laurel Award for his outstanding achievement in social engagements.

POOR MANAGEMENT

Kip Keino became the first ever athlete to receive an Olympic Laurel Award on Friday during the Rio Olympics opening ceremony.

Back in Nairobi to forestall a major fallout at the airport, Kenya Airways offered the star javelin thrower, Yego, a boarding pass.

"I am defeated on this! I don't have a ticket!! What's not happening here!" he posted on his Facebook wall yesterday.

But Yego, who holds the Commonwealth Games and the Africa javelin record at 92.72m, had ranted on social media since Friday over National Olympic Committee's (Nock) decision to have his coach Joseph Mosonik leave the country on August 14, and then return to Kenya three days later.

"This is the madness around Nock!! My coach leaves Kenya on 14th then back on 18th before I do my finals!! This madness in Nock. They should be knocked out!!"

He told Feverpitch: "I have tried reaching out to these guys in Nock without success. All of them are in Rio except James Chacha (the Nock deputy secretary general). But he is not picking calls."

The move generated heated debate on social media, with speculations of sabotage rife.

Yego wrote: "Is someone really trying to sabotage the results of team Kenya in Rio!! I am reading mischief on the management of the team, the sprinters left last Sunday and their coaches were left behind, very irresponsible and funny way! Now my coach has been told he is not traveling until August 14 and I am leaving on Sunday, which means he will arrive a day before I get to the field!"