• The two-day event will be held at the Nyayo Stadium, not Ulinzi Sports Complex.
• In addition, AK has invited sprinters from Botswana, Uganda and South Sudan to scale up the competition thus increasing the possibility of shoring the numbers.
Athletics Kenya is counting on the national trials set for June 14 and 15 to bolster the number of athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Image: TEDDY MULEI
Athletics Kenya are counting on the national trials set for June 14 and 15 to bolster the number of athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
AK senior vice president Paul Mutwii, the head of competitions, said 49 athletes have qualified for the Olympics and have been authenticated following a rigorous exercise focusing on qualification by right and having met the set anti-doping criteria.
The qualification period spans between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
Each athlete heading for the trials must have had at least one out-of-competition test between September 4, 2023 and May 3, 2024.
It is the latter that the national federation considered while drafting the list of athletes to compete at the trials.
The two-day event will be held at the Nyayo Stadium, not Ulinzi Sports Complex.
Ulinzi Sports is not a World Athletics-certified venue and athletes would still be ineligible for the Olympics if they attained qualification at the Lang'ata Road facility.
However, field events, including shot put and discus, will be held at the warm-up pitch at the Moi Stadium, Kasarani.
Kenya is still under the Athletes Integrity Unit watch under Rule 15, which sets out a non-exhaustive list of criteria that must be taken into account by the AIU Board in categorising national federations.
Kenya is in Category 'A'— high risk of doping.
"Our technical committee selected 49 athletes who met the qualification times in their events and received anti-doping approval," Mutwii said.
A total of 270 athletes have been invited to compete for slots in Team Kenya.
In addition, AK has invited sprinters from Botswana, Uganda and South Sudan to scale up the competition thus increasing the possibility of shoring the numbers.
Only Ferdinand Omanyala (100m) and Zablom Ekwam (400m) have qualified for Paris in the sprints.
“We want to ensure that more sprint athletes meet Olympic qualification so we have invited other countries,” said AK Youth Development Committee chairman Barnaba Korir.
He revealed there will be no 10,000m races at the trials, insisting the selection done during the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, United States, is final.
“The 10,000m will not be included in the trials. We already have a team following the Prefontaine trials. The top two athletes qualified automatically, with the third to be decided by a panel,” Korir stated.
World record holder Beatrice Chebet, Lilian Kasait, Daniel Mateiko and Nicholas Kipkorir secured automatic qualification.
“Invited athletes will be required to pick their bib numbers in person a day earlier,” Korir stated.
Among the invited athletes is the world record holder and 1500m Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, who will compete in the 1,500m and 5,000m races.
Kipyegon has 3:50.72 in the 1,500m and 14:32.31 in the 5,000m, clocked during the Prefontaine Classic and the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, respectively.
She will join Chebet in the 5,000m race. The Kenya Police runner hit the Olympic standard time during the Prefontaine Classic in September after clocking 14:05.92.
Mary Moraa headlines the women's 400m (50.38) and 800m (1:56.03).
Moraa won the 800m race at the Doha Diamond League on May 10 after clocking 1:57.91 and placed second at the Prefontaine Classic (1:56.71) behind Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson (1:55.78).
She will be joined by national champion Mercy Chebet who is yet to meet the Olympic time.