More medal chances for Kenya in Olympic Games

NOCK President Paul Tergat (right) and Ag Secretary General NOCK Francis Mutuku during a press conference at NOCK Nairobi office. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya has more medal prospects in the 2020 Olympic Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved five more disciplines.

Apart from athletics which has always won the bulk of medals, Kenya will now have athletics and baseball to increase their prospects.

Apart from the two disciplines, IOC has also approved skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing.

In a bid to have good preparations for the games, National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) said they will ensure all teams are well prepared for the games in Japan.

According to Nock acting Secretary General Francis Mutuku, a team to work on the preparations will be unveiled before end of next month.

“We will have a preparations team ready by end of January to ensure that as many sports as possible qualify for participation,” he said in a statement.

He said Kenya will be looking forward to doing better than in 2016 when the country won six gold medals, six silver and one bronze medal.

Mutuku accompanied Nock President Paul Tergat to Japan over the weekend for an IOC General Assembly.

The acting NOCK Secretary General said they have been assured everything is ready to host the games.

“Among the major highlights of the General Assembly was the update of the preparation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“The IOC President Thomas Bach said venues are on time and the host city is ready well ahead of the event,” he said.

The games will be held from the 24th of July to the 24th of August 2020. A total of  33 Sports, 48 Disciplines, 339 Events,42 Venues and 11,090 Athletes will make the 2020 games.

The ratio of Females will be 48.5%, coming very close to the IOC target of 50% Females.

This was recently achieved in the Youth Olympics recently held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mutuku said that having visited Tokyo, there are two major challenges. They include adverse weather conditions and transport.

“As a result, morning  sessions for rugby will now finish by 12 pm while evening sessions will begin at 4.30 pm.

“Likewise, mountain bike will now start at 3 pm in order to ensure better conditions for the athletes,” he said.