MARTIAL ARTS :Tong-Il Moo-Do Federation in Soya awards list

Kenya Tong-Il Moo-Do Federation, who successfully retained the Mombasa Open international championships a fortnight ago, is among nominees for sports federation of the year award at next month’s Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya).

They emerged second behind the Philippines at the 2019 World Masterships Martial Arts championship in South Korea with nine medals; two gold, two silver and five bronze.

They will battle for the crown alongside the Kenya Sports Federation of the Deaf (KSFD), Athletics Kenya (AK), Kenya Motor Sports Federation (KMSF) and Special Olympics Kenya.

This year's award are sponsored by Safaricom with County Government of Mombasa, Kenya Pipeline, Communication Authority of Kenya, New KCC, Lapfund, Kenya Power, UBA Bank, Nairobi Bottlers, Kenya Ports Authority, NHIF, NSSF, Kenya Tourism Board and Gotv among the co sponsors.

KSFD have launched new deaf sports disciplines like rugby, tennis, badminton and cycling which have attracted active sportsmen and women.

They also managed to send a team to the World Deaf Swimming Championships in Brazil in August 2019 and successfully hosted the First Africa Deaf Athletics Championships where Kenya won with 54 medals (20 gold, 16 silvers and 18 bronze).

KMSF successfully pushed for the return of Safari Rally back to the World Rally Championships series in 2020.

AK took teams to the World Cross Country Championships held on March 30 in Denmark, Africa Under-20 and Under-18 Championships held April 16-20 in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire and African Games held from August 19-30 in Rabat, Morocco and World Athletics Championships in Doha.

The country claimed eight medals; two gold three silver and three bronze, finishing second behind Ethiopia at the World Cross.

Kenya also topped the medal standings in the Under-20 event with 26 medals; 12 gold, nine silver and five bronze but finished second behind South Africa in the Under-18 competition with 18 medals; five gold, seven silver and six bronze.

At the African Games, Kenya won 20 medals; 10 gold, seven silver and three bronze to finish second in athletics behind Nigeria, who had 10 gold, seven silver and six bronze medals at the African Games held August 26-30. Athletics was the largest contributor of medals for Kenya’s seventh overall position at the Games.

Kenya also collected 11 medals; five gold, two silver and four bronze at the Worlds.