Kenya’s build-up towards the Tokyo Olympics has received a major shot in the arm with six athletes being placed on a Sh100,000-a-month scholarship programme.
The highly-competitive scholarships have been processed by the Association of National Olympics Committees of Africa (Anoca).
National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) president, Paul Tergat, handed over the scholarships to the six top athletes at a ceremony in Kericho Sunday.
The recipients are Wycliffe Kinyamal, Rodgers Kwemoi, Emily Cherotich, Ferguson Rotich, Conseslus Kipruto and Timothy Cheruiyot.
Their achievements perhaps show how competitive the scholarships were: Kinyamal is the Commonwealth 800 metres champion, Kwemoi the Commonwealth 10,000m bronze medalist and Rotich the world 800m bronze medalist.
Cherotich won the national 800m title in 2018 and was a bronze medalist at the 2016 African Games while highly-regarded Kipruto is the world steeplechase champion and Cheruiyot the world 1,500m champion.
Cheruiyot is currently preparing for Thursday’s virtual run against Norwegian athletes and couldn’t attend Sunday's function in Jericho and Kaput wasn’t also available.
But the other four athletes were excited on their selection. Each athlete will receive Sh400,000 for the next four months and the disbursement will go on until next year when they travel for the Games in Tokyo.
Tergat said the selection process was vigorous and made it clear that those who benefited must account for the money.
“There is a very stringent process of qualifying for the scholarships which includes being on top in the world in the current season and we realised the other federations could not qualify and Athletics Kenya had athletes who could benefit and that’s how we rewarded them,” said Target.
The NOC-K president said Kenya was lucky to get six athletes being rewarded compared to other countries who got none.
“I’m happy because we got athletes who will be participating in the Games which were postponed to next year benefited from the fund especially during this period of Covid-19. Other countries were not able to get the amount and that shows we are always a giant in athletics,” said Target, a former world marathon record holder.
He urged athletes to continue training hard and practice clean sport to avoid embarrassment due to doping.
“During our days, we used to train hard and win easily and there was nothing like doping. “These days, it (doping) is becoming rampant because the athletes want to make quick money and this has to come to an end,” said the NOC-K president.
Athletics Kenya’s chief administrative officer Susan Kamau said selection was done on merit, while Kenya’s Chef de Mission to the 2020 Olympics Games, Waithaka Kioni, asked athletes present to always run clean and avoid use of performance-enhancing drugs.
