Athletics team gets lion share of C’wealth games slots
Kenya has a delegation of 127 participants in this year’s Commonwealth Games.
Athletics which is the most successful sport in the country has taken a huge chunk having 53 athletes in the team, 32 men and 20 women for the Club Games with the rest of the disciplines being allocated the remaining 74 slots.
A total of 20 sports teams shared out the allocated slots based on their current and previous performances.
Kenya is participating in athletics, boxing, rugby, squash, hockey, badminton, 3×3 basketball, cycling, weightlifting, table tennis, swimming, badminton, triathlon, lawn bowls, para-cycling, judo, wheelchair basketball, para-athletics, para-powerlifting and beach volleyball.
The country is seeking to improve on the 2018 Gold Coast outing where the country bagged 17 medals (4-gold, 7-Silver and 6-Bronze) to finish 14th overall, and fifth in athletics.
At the previous Games, all the medals were from athletics, save for bronze in boxing won by Christine Ongare in the women’s flyweight.
Athletics Kenya (AK) Senior Vice-President Paul Mutwii believes Kenya’s team is formidable enough.
“We at AK are not bragging but the stats and records are there for all to see, we are the most performing federation when it comes to commonwealth Games,” said Mutwii.
“Our athletes have gone all out in the previous editions and became the biggest performers for team Kenya.
“I don’t expect anything less in Birmingham because we have selected the best team to represent us,” said Mutwii while insisting AK should have been given an even bigger allocation for Commonwealth, Games.
On the marathon team, Mutwii said the team has what it takes to conquer the at the Club Games.