Emurua Dikirr camp bubbling with anticipation

Amos Abuga

 @PeopleDailyKe

World U20 Championships camp in South Rift’s Emurua Dikirr, Narok County is hopeful they will have more girls than boys representing Kenya for the July 7-12 Championships in Nairobi.

While Africa U20 javelin champion Ita Nao is the star athlete at the South Rift’s camp located at  Emanyata Athletics Club at Emurua Dikirr Primary School, coaches are happy more girls are in camp than boys.

The camp has 32 athletes of which 17 are girls, the biggest number in recent years.

Coach James ole Seur acknowledges there has been great growth even in the numbers of athletes who are joining camp.

“Just two years ago when we had the World U18 camp here, only one girl attended. For us, this is some form of victory.

It is a collective effort from teachers, parents the community and without forgetting Athletics Kenya (AK) for making this possible,” said Seur.

Some of the girls in the Narok camp are Sylvia Ntapa in 3,000m, Silantoi Kikapi in 5,000m  and Sylvia Manguyo in 200m others are Sintei Musei and Naiperiai Kiok both in 1,500m. Seur is optimistic that given the required support, the camp and region will be able to produce more stars.

“We don’t have many Maasai girls in athletics because of factors like early marriages, forced or not. But you also find boys also fading away at early ages because of lack of enough facilities and other contributing factors,” he added.

Meanwhile Nao, who finished third with a throw of 73 metres during the national trials for Doha World Athletics Championships, is confident the camp will be able to get more athletes joining the national team.

“I know and  it’s no secret we shall expect a lot of competition from all the other camps countrywide, and I also know we are working hard to have good representation come July next year,” said Nao who is the camp’s captain.

“My prayer is that we give both genders support. I believe this can be done while respecting our cultures,” he said.