Preparations for Commonwealth Games in Birmingham intensify

Kenya has stepped up preparations for the Commonwealth Games set for July 28 to August 8 in Birmingham in the United Kingdom in a bid to replicate good performance witnessed in the previous edition of the games held in Gold Coast, Australia in 2018.

Cabinet Secretary for Sports Dr Amina Mohamed on Wednesday presided over the 1st Steering Committee to oversee the Kenyan team’s preparations and participation in the upcoming international event and Africa Youth Games in Cairo, scheduled to take place in July and September this year.

2/3 The steering committee will oversee the preparations, work plans approvals, budgets and other proposals to enhance a successful participation of our #TeamKenya in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth and Africa Youth Games scheduled to take place in Cairo, Egypt. @JoeOkudo pic.twitter.com/CdtduQT6GH

— Ministry Of Sports, Culture & Heritage (@moscakenya) May 11, 2022

The National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) in April promised equal opportunity to every athlete seeking to represent Kenya at the Games.

“Going forward as the National Olympics Committee of Kenya, we want to make sure that we give every athlete within the country an equal opportunity to participate in terms of qualifications for these games,” said NOC-K president Paul Tergat

According to NOC-K Secretary General Francis Mutuku,Kenyan teams will camp in three locations in Birmingham in readiness for the event which is expected to feature 72 teams, including the 54 Commonwealth of Nations countries and 18 territories.

“Our target is to win more medals compared to the last edition. A task force is being set up  to come up with a budget that will help those preparing start early enough because we are left with little time,” said Mutuku.

Kenya will send 113 athletes to the games.Some 94 Kenyan athletes will qualify through open allocation, the men’s sevens rugby, men and women’s  3×3 basketball teams already having qualified

The 18-member Kenya women’s hockey team has also qualified for the games, having claimed  bronze medal at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations  tournament in Accra.

Kenya became members of the Commonwealth in 1963 although they first took part in the Commonwealth Games in 1954, missing only the 1986 Games since.

At the last edition held in Gold Coast 2018, Kenya scooped 17 medals (four gold, seven silver and six bronze.)

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