Youth talent is the future

The youth camps organised by National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock) portend good times for Kenya in global championships if managed well. Early this week, Nock brought together 103 talented young players, drawn from 13 disciplines, for the first ever National Elite Youth Camp that will run for two weeks at Lukenya Academy in Machakos County.

The goal is to equip the youngsters with skills to enable them to compete favourably in age-group championships, and to ensure there is a large pool of talented youngsters in various disciplines, including athletics, badminton, basketball, cycling, handball, hockey, judo, rugby, tae kwon do and tennis.

The initiative should be commended since it is the only way Kenya can identify talented sportspeople to nurture, thereby ensuring a steady supply of top talent for national teams in the long run. Nock president Paul Tergat said that the camp will be held every school holidays, with some being held outside Nairobi.

Other federations need to follow suit to tap the talent wasting away across the country. It is our hope that those youngsters seconded to these high-level training camps by Nock were selected on the basis of meritocracy. To fully realise their objectives, such programmes must be run professionally and be sustained throughout the year. This requires support and funding not only from the government but also from corporates.

With such programmes targeting the youth, Kenya is assured of taking not only strong teams to international championships, but also fielding athletes in many disciplines at the Olympic Games, and in other key international championships.