Athletes pose for a photo during National Sports Talent Camp under the Kenya Academy of Sports (KAS) in Nyali Beach in Mombasa on December 9, 2024.
Kenya is banking on a three-week training camp to nurture sports talent across 10 disciplines for the benefit of the country’s national teams.
The National Sports Talent Camp, is organised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports in collaboration with Ministry of Education, and the Kenya Academy of Sports.
The youngsters attending the camp were scouted during the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) championships, and the Kenya Primary Schools Sports Association (KPSSA) games this year at the regional level.
The programme, which started with a two-week training camp in Kisumu, Nairobi, Eldoret, and Mombasa from December 1 to 14, will now morph into the National Elite Camp in Nairobi.
Yesterday, players, aged between 17 and 19, reported to the elite camp at Hospital Hill Boys High School in Nairobi, and Parklands Girls School. The players were identified in the first phase of the programme from a pool of 3,763, and will attend the elite camp till Friday.
It is a departure from Talanta Hela programme championed by former Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, and is reminiscent of the Youth Olympic Centres of the 1970s.
In the past, Kenya has also experimented with National Centres of Excellence which hosted young talent scouted during primary and secondary school championships.
A total of 598 youngsters camped at Kisumu Girls High School and Kisumu Boys High School in Kisumu. Some 129 top performers in five disciplines; football, rugby, hockey, basketball, and volleyball were selected. The 58 boys and 71 girls left Kisumu for Nairobi on Sunday morning.
The National Sports Talent Camp in Kisumu attracted youngsters in 10 disciplines; football (111 boys and 51 girls), hockey (33 boys and 45 girls), volleyball (23 boys and 33 girls), rugby (55 boys and 50 girls), Lawn tennis (eight boys and six girls), table tennis (six boys and 15 girls), swimming (15 boys and five girls), chess (28 boys and 21 girls), badminton (12 boys and six girls), and basketball (33 boys and 32 girls). In total, 324 boys and 274 girls turned up in Kisumu.
“This training will help attract more students to help realise their talents, making school games more competitive. We need to exclude over-age players in next year’s competitions to allow young talent to shine,” Grace Joy, a teacher at Lwak Girls High School in Siaya County, observed.
Junior Starlets midfielder Halima Imbachi, forward Valencia Achieng’, and wingers Marion Serenge and Clotilda Auma who represented Kenya at the 2024 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup in October in the Dominican Republic, also joined the camp.
“We have acquired new skills and discipline. We learned a lot during the Fifa Under-17 World Cup, and we have returned to share our inexperience with the others. We aren’t where we want to be, which is why we came back to focus on honing our talents,” Achieng’, a Form Two student at Butere Girls High School, said in Kisumu.
Tigoi Girls High School’s basketball team coach Peter Ochara, who headed the basketball camp, noted that the same players should be groomed up to the national level.
“When local teams seek players, they should give priority to home-grown talent instead of signing players from abroad. For example, Nairobi City Thunder which qualified for Basketball Africa League (BAL) had foreign players even on the technical bench. If we continue overlooking local players, when will they have the opportunity to showcase their talent?” Ochara, who has over 50 years of coaching experience, posed.
“This is a great opportunity for players to realise that academics complements talent, which is why KAS has returned to nurture talent in schools and we are grateful for this opportunity for the young people,” said Derrick Inyanje, table tennis coach.
In Eldoret, 600 athletes (300 boys and 300 girls) turned up, but only 73 were selected for the Nairobi camp. In Mombasa, 378 students (243 boys and 35 girls) turned up.
In Nairobi, 1,177 athletes (568 boys and 609 girls) turned up for selection.
