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| February 23, 2002 | Saturday | Zilhaj 10, 1422 |
Kenyan supremacy under threat
NAIROBI, Feb 22: Two leading world athletics managers said Friday that while Kenya still produced a stream of world-class athletes, their medal-winning could be challenged by up-and-coming talent from other African states.
Briton Duncan Gaskell and Michel Boeting of the Netherlands, in Nairobi to meet Kenyan athletics chiefs and attend the Kenyan national/ IAAF Permit cross country meeting on Saturday, said the east African country had a bright future in athletics.
“Kenya has enormous talent. Coupled with your life style, altitude, weather etc, Kenya can still produce a constant stream of world-class athletes,” Gaskell, head of Kim International Management since the death of founder Kim MacDonald in November, told Reuters in an interview.
But Netherlands-based Boeting of Global Sports Communications, said Kenya could not afford to rest on its laurels as other African countries were putting up increasingly stiff competition.
“Kenya has good athletes but they must wake up to the reality that some other countries are coming up,” Boeting said.
“Ethiopia, for instance, used to be a closed society. They would only be seen in Olympics and world championships. That has changed. And some medals that hitherto belonged to Kenya are going there,” Boeting said.
Gaskell said that Kenya’s infrastructure, more advanced than some other African countries, had been a boon to the nation’s athletics.
“Kenyan rivals in Africa, Ethiopia and Morocco, have some very good athletes but they lack the kind of infrastructure for producing great athletes,” Gaskell said.
“Kenya’s Armed Forces produce talented and disciplined athletes. The school system is intact and Kenya Amateur Athletic Association organises competitions regularly. Tanzania should have the same capability but doesn’t have the same infrastructure. In fact, they are 10 years behind,” he said.
“Morocco has good individual athletes. Indeed, they are a threat to Kenya in championship medals but they can’t produce 500 world-class athletes in marathon, cross country, road races etc like Kenya,” he said.
Among the top athletes in the Kenyan stable are Olympics 1,500-metres champion Noah Ngeny and upcoming steeplechase star Stephen Cher