NOC-K, KU to set up high performance centre

Plans are underway for the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) to set up a high-performance training centre at Kenyatta University.

Speaking during the launch of a high-performance training for coaches and technical directors at the Sports View Hotel, Nairobi, yesterday, NOC-K Secretary General John Ogola said the world-class facility will help improve the performance of Kenyan athletes.

"Kenyatta University will offer space while NOC-K will develop the facility and equip it with equipment and technical personnel," said Ogola.

The official said NOC-K has started a programme of training coaches to embrace technology and sports science that will enhance the performance of Kenyan athletes. He further said they will have a database of coaches and technical officials for purposes of monitoring and evaluation.

“We want to empower our coaches by educating them on the use of science and technology in their training programmes," he said.

“The days of relying on talent are over, and it's now science and technology that have taken centre stage in the preparations of athletes and competitions.”

On his part, NOC-K first Vice President Barnaba Korir said the initiative was in accordance with their manifesto of having a transformative agenda.

"Our pre-election pledge was to have a new dawn by embracing new ways of managing athletes and the technical wing of sports," he said.

Korir said other nations that Kenya was beating in sports were catching up with them, and hence the need of changing tactics by moving away from the manual ways of preparing teams to science and technology.

Although they are looking beyond the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Korir said they will gauge the coaches’ performance during the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics.

NOC-K athletes' representative Doreen Okidi decried the low number of women in coaching, insisting that the number falls short of the projection by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of having at least 30 percent compared to 17 percent currently in practice.

"With this kind of initiative, I am optimistic that the number of women coaches will increase," she said.