Kenya can diversity its great sports potential

Julius Yego competes during the men’s javelin throw qualifications at the IAAF World Championships at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on August 15. [PHOTO: AFP]

By PAUL KARIUKI

Like politics, sports can be unifying as well as divisive. We, as a nation, collectively put our stereotyping of certain communities aside and, in a patriotic spirit, cheer on our sportsmen and women when they’re doing the country proud through heroic sporting exploits.

  With our eyes trained on our athletes in Russia, it’s undeniable we’ll be over the moon when we stamp our authority as the continents’ and global athletics powerhouse. We should, however, blame ourselves at the same time for not having exploited and optmised on sprints to the full.

We’ve taken for granted Jamaica and USA owns the unique rights to this with Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay chest-thumping to the sprint tape. We’ve not realised we can give these American and Caribbean braggadocios a run for their money. And more, hurdles are another area our athletes conspicuously miss at.

  That Kenya is endowed with a young generation with great sporting potential cannot be overstated. When one Julius Yego burst to the limelight representing Kenya during the London Olympics in the javelin, he underlined what we’d for long chosen to ignore.

Our great sporting potential doesn’t lie in showcasing our nimble legs in distance and road races only. Yego is typical of many youths with latent prowess the sports federations of our day had failed to identify, nurture and utilise for our country’s glory.

  Countries like China, Russia and USA are always table toppers when it comes to medal haul during international competitions. Kenya only wait for plaudits as the first or second country from the Africa in the globe’s ranking. We shouldn’t take pride in this.

The above countries may be global powers in terms of economical and military muscle, but they do not always parade a single sports discipline as had become our perennial penchant.

  That foreign nation discovers potential sporting prowess in our youngsters long before we do can be underscored by the case of one Daniel Adongo.

The 23-year-old recently joined American football to play for the Indianapolis Colts. South Africa discovered him during the Safari Sevens in 2006 and inducted him to the Natal Sharks academy. He has never represented Kenya in international engagements. Its imperative he could be still on the rugby sidelines had he remained in Kenya.

When players compromise officials for a ‘permanent’ places in a team, this tells why.

  Cases abound where players and athletes buy their ways to national teams. It defeats logic why many are called to training camps but ejected out to pave way for a foreign legion like the case with Harambee Stars.

The jet-lagged players make it to the team shortly before crucial matches. They rarely gel with the teammates who had spent quality time at the camps and had developed a good rapport.

— The writer is a football analyst and freelance writer

([email protected])