World Athletics’ decision to allocate Kenya only six places at the World Athletics Indoor Championships resulted in the cancellation of the national trials scheduled for this weekend.
Paul Mutwii, Athletics Kenya’s senior deputy president in charge of competition, said that they did not see the need to invite hundreds of athletes for the trials just to select six.
Mutwii announced that their panel of coaches would select the team for the World Athletics Indoor Championships today.
The championships are scheduled to take place from March 20 to 22 at the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena in Toruń, Poland.
Kenya, Brazil, Canada, Japan and Sweden have each been allocated six slots in the championships, in which the United States will have the highest number of athletes, at 16.
France, Italy and Jamaica will each have 11 athletes, followed by Australia, Great Britain and Germany with 10, Spain with eight and Belgium with seven.
South Africa, China and the Netherlands have seven places each; Nigeria has five; and Ethiopia has four. Botswana and Morocco have three places each.
“I think performances in previous championships dictated the allocation, and this is the first time in a long time that we are taking such a small squad to the World Indoor Championships,” said Mutwii on Tuesday.
He added that the selection of Team Kenya for the event will be based on performances in the ongoing World Indoor Tour and world rankings.
Kenya, which was represented by nine athletes at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, failed to win a medal for the first time since the 1993 championships in Toronto, Canada.
The country has only failed to win a medal on three occasions (in 1987, 1993 and 2024) since the championships began in Paris, France, in 1985, when Joseph Chesire claimed bronze in the 1,500 metres.
Kenya now has 42 medals from the World Athletics Indoor Championships: 10 gold, 15 silver, and 17 bronze.
Kenya's Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku celebrates winning the final of the men's 5000m athletics event at Hampden Park during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on July 27, 2014. PHOTO | BEN STANSALL
The legendary 2008 Olympic Games 800m champion Paul Ereng handed the country its first world indoor victory in his speciality during the 1989 championships in Budapest, Hungary. He went on to defend the title in Seville, Spain, in 1991.
Caleb Mwangangi’s victory in the 3,000 metres in Sopot, Poland, was Kenya’s last victory at the World Indoor Championships.
Those expected to make the team include Dorcas Ewoi, the World 1,500m silver medallist, who recently became the second fastest Kenyan woman in indoor athletics when she won her 1,500m race in 4:01.22 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix at the New Balance Track and Field Center in Boston, USA, on Saturday.
Ferdinand Omanyala reacts after finishing a men's 100m race during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games at Stade de France on August 03, 2024.
Photo credit: Reuters
Kenya’s 60m indoor national record holder, Ferdinand Omanyala, who finished fourth in 6.77 seconds at the Paris Indoor event on Sunday, is also expected to compete in his third world indoor championships.
