All system go as Shujaa heads to olympic village in Paris

The Kenya Sevens Rugby team is heading to the Olympic Village in Paris France on Friday in the afternoon with their heads high following days of intense training in Kenya and Miramas France.

Despite facing difficult matches in their pool against Argentina, Australia and Samoa, Shujaa is determined to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time since the games were introduced in the Olympics.

Forward Kevin Wekesa is one of the new players in the team and he is confident they are up to the task.

"We are just ticking our boxes on the games plan, we've had great training and we are ready, I don't think there is a stage, the young boys are used to the big stage, it's just excitement building up now as we head tot he village for the games," he said

One of the things the team has introduced in their training as part of their preparations is the introduction of athlete performance tracking.

A GPS is a system that can be used to provide data needed by the team's technical bench, especially the coach.

Through this device, the team's technical bench can use the GPS to track a player's movement on the pitch, as well as collect key date like running, position on the pitch as well as heart rate.

Wekesa says the move has been impressive for the team.

"In the fast-rising world, we are all heading to data analytics and of course, even sports is heading the same direction, it's good to track our data to help us improve on our training, and how we perform, it's good implementation in the team. It's good, the only problem with it is it's an expensive investment for most teams" he added.

His words have been echoed by the team's manager Steve Sewe who says it was about time they embraced technology to improve their performances.

He was grateful to the National Olympics committee for helping them procure the GPS as they sought to overcome their tough opponents.

Through the system, Sewe says they will be able to tell if players have hit their limits as well as figuring what each player is capable of doing on the pitch.

"Numbers don't lie, all these numbers come to play even for management to help them make informed decisions on who to play, who not to play, who to sub and who to keep the pitch, we already know which players are working extremely hard and which players are hitting their targets so it's a plus for us," Sewe Said.

Sewe added that they plan to continue using the system even after the Olympics, however, he says that they are still studying the data as well as getting comfortable with the system.

However, with time they plan to make the data collected available since it could help players get scouted internationally.

He says they also plan to recommend clubs in Kenya to use the system as part of improving the qualify of the game in the country.