Kenya Canoe team travels to Spain for a training camp ahead of their African Slalom Canoe Olympics Qualifiers

Canoe and Rowing team [photo courtesy]

The Kenya Canoe team on Saturday (6^th March) left the country to travel to Spain for a training camp ahead of their African Slalom Canoe Olympics Qualifiers to be held on 20th and 21st March 2021 at Seu D’Urgell.

The athletes will be participating in the disciplines C1 or Canoe 1 and K1 that is Kayak 1, meaning one person per boat.

The team comprising of Samwel Muturi, Levias karanja, Daniel Chomba, and coach Titus Mukundi will be the first team to arrive in Spain ahead of their African counterparts.

Canoe and Rowing team [photo courtesy]

The team was anticipated to travel on the 14th of March but thanks to a full sponsorship courtesy of the International Canoe Federation, the plans were brought forward to avoid possible international travel restrictions and delays caused by the pandemic situation. ICF have procured technical assistance for the team training.

Kenya was offered four slots in the competition, one man and one lady in each of the two disciplines, but there were no ladies in the elite level from the Canoeing Clubs to take up the spots, therefore only men will represent the country.

 This is a big challenge to the federation in terms of development.

Kenya's rowing team [photo courtesy]

The three players were selected after the Canoe and Rowing Federation held a national selection event in February.

Since then, the team has been training at Sagana in preparation for the qualifiers.

Other African countries expected to participate at the African Slalom Canoe Qualifiers are Algeria, DRC, Morocco, Mauritius and Senegal.