Coach Julius Kirwa bemoans fate of Kenya relay team

Alphas Kishoyian trains at the Safaricom Stadium on April 21, 2015. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • Kirwa also said that the National Olympics Committee of Kenya has sought to find out which criteria was used to rule out the team out of the Olympics.
  • Kirwa said he was certain Kenya’s relay team had qualified for the Olympics after the team registered the required standard time in South Africa.

Team Kenya’s head coach Julius Kirwa has said it is unfortunate that the country’s relay team will not be travelling to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics as planned before.

Kirwa also said that the National Olympics Committee of Kenya has sought to find out which criteria was used to rule out the team out of the Olympics.

Kirwa said he was certain Kenya’s relay team had qualified for the Olympics after the team registered the required standard time in South Africa.

Kirwa also wondered why Kenya was being prevented from competing yet the team registered a better time than that of the team which qualified in Bahamas.

BETTER TIME

“When you compare the time the team that qualified in Bahamas had clocked to that which our team qualified with, ours was much better,” said coach Kirwa.

The coach also pointed out that Botswana’s team which Kenya beat in South Africa have been allowed to compete at the Olympics, yet local athletes have been left out.

“We are still finding out what happened to Kenya’s relay team because it is not clear how they disqualified us. We are ready if they can still consider us,” added the coach.

Kenya’s relay team was the favourite to replace Russia which was banned from the games due to doping claims.

The coach, who has been training Kenyan athletes at the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret, said the Kenyan team that is going to this year’s Olympics is more prepared than those of the previous years.

“Our training has been better than in previous years. We hope to do better than 2008 Olympics,” said the coach.