Maintain sporting discipline – Daily Nation

Global sport is at a standstill owing to the coronavirus threat as numerous competitions are postponed or cancelled. There’s now a real threat of the Olympic Games in Tokyo being postponed with more than 13,000 people having succumbed to Covid-19 and 313,000 infections reported by Sunday globally.

Among the victims is 76-year-old Lorenzo Sanz, the former president of Spanish football giants Real Madrid, who died at the weekend. Argentine footballer Paulo Dybala, Colombian cyclist Fernando Gaviria and American basketball star Kevin Durant are among sports icons who have gone down with coronavirus.

That is why our own sportsmen and women ought to heed the Ministry of Health advisory that we avoid unnecessary gatherings, which include competitions and group training sessions.

Desperate times call for equally desperate measures and discipline will be key as our elite athletes are expected to keep fit while in isolation. It may sound ridiculous but that will hold them in good stead when normalcy returns with the possibility of the Olympics being held, after all, and all other competitions hitherto grounded bouncing back to a backlog of energy-sapping fixtures.

The onus is on our coaches and trainers to craft personalised training programmes that will ensure little is lost in fitness. This is especially so for the teams and individuals that have already qualified for the Games or are eyeing other global competitions.

Meanwhile, with the World Athletics Continental Cup scheduled for May 2 in Nairobi likely to be rescheduled, let us keep our fingers crossed that we return to normalcy in time for Kenya to host the World Athletics Under-20 Championships and World Rally Championships Safari Rally, both slated for July.

For after every storm, there shall be calm.