Olympics: Japan offers one month training camp for Team Kenya

Sports, Culture and Heritage CS Amina Mohamed [PHOTO: Boniface Okendo,Standard]

Japan has agreed to offer the Kenya Olympic team a four-week pre-Olympic training camp in Kurume city for acclimatisation purposes.

However, Kenya officials say each qualified discipline will have to decide when to arrive in Japan dependent on their competition schedule.  

Francis Mutuku, Secretary-General of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) said the country has made possible for its sportsmen to prepare and qualify for the games.

Kenya had an option of going to Fukuoka, but Mutuku said they opted to Kurume City because of its similarity in weather with Tokyo.

“We have always had training camps ahead of the Olympics. In Tokyo, we will be in Kurume. In London, we settled in Bristol and in Brazil we were also in Rio. However, the exact days of departure to Kurume will be decided after consultation with team managers.” Mutuku said.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed will preside over the final document signing ceremony with officials from Kurume City in Nairobi on Friday.

Already Kenyan Rugby (men and women), women volleyball, swimming and athletics have all secured their ticket to Tokyo.

Other sports disciplines in the pipeline battling for their quota in Tokyo include beach volleyball, boxing, taekwondo, handball and softball.