Kenya athletes at Olympic will be mesmerizing, says Ababu
Rosemary Runyenje and Georgia Fernandez have been unveiled as the winners of Team Kenya’s fashion and design competition for casual wear to be worn during the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Georgia Fernandez, 23, a former Peponi School student who is currently taking her Masters Degree in the USA won the design for the closing ceremony and her other design in the same category was voted as third best.
Rosemary Runyenje won the deal that will see her design won by Kenyan athletes and officials for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on July 26.
The winners were paraded by the Ministry of Sports and the National Olympic of Kenya (Nock) Talanta Plaza yesterday in an event that was attended by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, NOCK president Paul Tergat and other senior officials.
According to the Ministry of Sports, the new dress code will be displayed to the public by President William Ruto at State House,Nairobi soon.
A total of 114 entries were submitted and their crafts were put into microscopic scrutiny by coaches, players, former athletes and sports journalists based on the demands of the Team Kenya themes and comfortability of athletes going to the games next month.
From the more than 100 submitted entries, the judging panel narrowed down to the best 20 and then the final 3 each category.
Vincent Okumu finished second in the closing ceremony and casual wear categories while Akinyi was named second runners up in the opening ceremony category.
Runyeje, 29, expressed her joy after the announcement of her victory noting that the award is the best ‘gift’ for the career she fought for after rejecting her mother’s proposal to study pharmacy at the university.
“This is huge considering that I am not really known in the fashion industry in Kenya. I feel so thrilled and humbled; for sure, I am speechless especially with the fact that my design will be showcased worldwide through the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympic Games. My mom is very happy as well for this moment because to be honest she did not want me to be a fashion designer. She had bigger dreams for me and she wanted me to be a pharmacist. However, after my first year in school and seeing my passion for this career, she then started supporting and she even bought me my first sewing machine,” Runyenje told People Sport.
Runyenje, a third-born in a family of three graduated at Kenyatta University in 2017 with a degree in Fashion and Design says draws inspiration from her late father who rose from nothing to become an architect.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba congratulated the winners and all the designers who submitted their works for the competition to dress Team Kenya at the Summer Games. Ababu said that a Kenya look will be a matter of national interest, a look that matches the brand of a nation which is the most successful African country at the Olympics.
“We have been counting down the days to the Olympics and everyday has mattered, we have been deliberate. We have taken time to curate a fitting look for Kenya. We have been careful to make sure that when Team Kenya steps out in Paris on July 26 the whole world will stand and say wow! Here comes Africa’s most successful nation at the Olympics. The whole world must see our arrival.We have spent months to think and imagine a look that will be uniquely Kenyan, reflecting the special character of our country,” Ababu said.
The winners of the competition were awarded with Sh 300,000 each while runners in each category bagged Sh 200,000. Second runner’s up walked home with Sh 100,000 from the Ministry of Sports.
