No time to nurse hangovers as busy Olympic year kicks in
M-Sport Ford driver Pierre-Louis Loubet (right) cruises in his Ford Puma with President William Ruto on board at the Loldia Shakedown stage on June 21, 2023.
What you need to know:
- As we hit the ground running after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we should do all it takes to support our sportsmen and women while holding managers of our sport to account and ensuring they never drop the ball.
- There could not have been a better way to end 2023 than Beatrice Chebet’s world record in the five-kilometre road race in Barcelona on the final day of the year on Sunday (14 minutes and 13 seconds).
Happy New Year! Greetings and best wishes as we usher in the new, Olympic year 2024.
This will certainly be one of the busiest sporting years yet with Kenya preparing to send one of its largest contingents ever to the Olympic Games in Paris from July 26 to August 11.
There’s hardly any time to nurse the New Year’s Day hangover as competitions are coming up thick and fast, with the first international event in Kenya – the Sirikwa Classic Cross Country – holding in exactly a month’s time on February 3 at the Lobo Village in Eldoret.
In 52 days’ time, Muthaiga Golf Club will host the DP Tour Kenya Open Golf Championships from February 22 with the World Rally Championship Safari Rally coming soon after.
Brought forward by three months to fall on its traditional Easter dates, this year’s WRC Safari Rally will be the third round of the World Rally Championship and will run from March 28 to 31 after the opening rounds in Monte Carlo (January 25-28) and Sweden (February 15-18).
Preparations for the rally are well behind schedule but Safari Rally CEO Phineas Kimathi has since moved to assure that his experienced team at the rally’s Secretariat will deliver a world-class contest well suited for the Easter Holiday celebrations.
Also in March, Kenya will be fielding teams at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland (March 1-3) and World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia (March 30).
And, hopefully, Accra will this time round pull off the African Games from March 8-23 after several previous postponements owing to a cash crunch.
April will be highlighted by Kenya’s round of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meetings – the Kip Keino Classic – on April 20 and we hope to see Kenya field a team at the World Athletics Race Walking Championships in Antalya, Turkey, the following day, on April 21.
In May, Kenya will host the World Secondary School Cross Country Championships at the Ngong Racecourse between May 15 and 17 with Bahamas hosting the World Athletics Relays Championships on May 4 and 5 at the Robinson Stadium in Nassau.
The Olympic Games in Paris from July 11 to August 8, followed by the Paralympic Games in the French capital from September 28 to October 8 will certainly be the year’s highlight with Kenya also expected to field a formidable team at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships at the Estadio Atletico de la Videna in Lima, Peru, from August 26-31.
Kenya hopes to send its largest contingent yet to the Olympics and Paralympics with women’s volleyball and men’s sevens rugby team having already booked their tickets to Paris.
Better organised, representation
Last year’s change of guard at the Kenya National Paralympic Committee has already seen heightened Paralympic activity and if the enthusiasm at last year’s competition at Kericho’s Wilson Kiprugut Stadium is anything to go by, then we shall have stronger, and better organised, representation in Paris than we had in Tokyo in 2021.
Meanwhile, several federations are still on the Olympic qualification pathway and, with better support, we shall certainly be well represented in Paris.
Such a busy calendar calls for meticulous planning, and it’s our hope that Treasury will be kind to sports this year, especially seeing as the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act is now in force and envisages a handsome slice of the gambling cake for sports development. Kenya’s Paris 2024 Steering Committee and Central Management Committee clearly have their work well cut out for them.
It is, therefore, reassuring to read Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba’s New Year’s message in which he spells out the financial gains in the sports sector, including the “historic” Sh240 million pumped into football “under the KBC-FKF live broadcast sponsorship (that) guarantees every Kenyan Premier League club at least Sh10 million a season.”
This year will also be crucial in as far as infrastructure development is concerned with the Moi International Sports Centre and Nyayo National Stadium closed for the umpteenth time for renovations that will allow Kenya to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations football tournament.
A new stadium is planned at the site of the current Jamhuri Sports Ground on Ngong Road and it’s our hope that at least one venue will be ready to host the Kip Keino Classic on April 20.
Is this the year that renovation works at Eldoret’s Kip Keino Stadium and Iten’s Kamariny Stadium, which is historic (remember the Jubilee Government’s pre-election pledges?) will finally be completed?
I guess only time will tell!
As we hit the ground running after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we should do all it takes to support our sportsmen and women while holding managers of our sport to account and ensuring they never drop the ball.
There could not have been a better way to end 2023 than Beatrice Chebet’s world record in the five-kilometre road race in Barcelona on the final day of the year on Sunday (14 minutes and 13 seconds).
As I congratulate the star from Kericho County, I hope her performance sets the tone for 2024!
I wish you all a blessed and most successful Olympic Year full of gold medal performances.
Happy New Year!
Makori is the Lead Editor (Sports and Integration Projects) at Nation Media Group. [email protected]
