NOC-K meets federations, calls for equal gender representation in selections

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 28 – The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) has urged federations to be transparent in their teams selection for the Commonwealth Games slated for July 28-August 8 in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

In a meeting with all the federations on Friday, NOC-K also called on inclusivity and equal representations on both gender including the officials to be appointed as per the agreement on adoption of policies discussed in the Gender Welfare in Sports Report discussed during the Agnes Tirop Conference.

“Having agreed on adopting declarations and commitments during the Agnes Tirop Conference to guide reforms in the sports sector, NOC-K is also imploring Federations to ensure gender balance in appointing officials, with NOC-K already doing the same in athletes quota distribution,” NOC-K Secretary General Francis Mutuku said.

“The agenda discussed included federations’ criteria of selection of athletes, coaches and managers. Based on previous games experience, the Committee urged the federations to ensure inclusivity in the trials, to include athletes from the grassroots and ensure the communication for these events has been well publicized to give all Kenyans who qualify an opportunity to be in the team.”

Mutuku affirmed that, in the spirit of exclusivity, the federations with Para sports will also integrate them in their programs as they prepare towards the games.

The Para sports in Birmingham will be Athletics, Wheelchair Basketball 3×3, Cycling, Lawn Bowls, Powerlifting, Swimming, Triathlon and Para Table Tennis.

The federations also gave a status on qualification of which they are all on track with most sports planning for their national trials and qualification events in February and March.

The individual sport in the Birmingham sports program are Aquatics, Athletics, Boxing, Cycling, Gymnastics, Judo, Lawn Bowls, Squash, Triathlon, Wrestling, Table Tennis, Weightlifting. While Team sports are: Basketball 3×3, Beach Volleyball, Cricket T20- women, Hockey, Netball-women, Rugby Sevens men, Rugby Sevens women and Table Tennis Teams.

So far, two male teams have qualified for the games, Kenya Sevens Team and the Basketball 3×3 while one female team has qualified, the Basketball 3×3.

The individual sports will qualify through open quota allocation according to the quota given by Commonwealth Games Federation.

Stakeholder engagements are ongoing for the appointment of the various Games Management Committees.