Covid-19 to cause spike in budgets for Tokyo Olympics
NOC-K acting Secretary General Francis Mutuku (right) follow the proceedings during a sports journalists’ workshop at the Pride Inn Beach Resort and Spa in Mombasa on November 29, 2020.
What you need to know:
- Mutuku announced that so far, 83 athletes have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, but added that there is still a window for more athletes to qualify from next month to June.
- “Now that we have resumed our sports after a long break due to Covid-19, we are training and giving support to the athletes for better performance at the Olympics next year,” he said.
Journalists planning to travel to the Tokyo Olympics next year will have to rejig at their budgets to accommodate extra costs of Covid-19 tests and quarantine periods.
Making a presentation via Zoom from Tokyo to a sports journalists’ workshop at the Pride Inn Beach Resort and Spa in Mombasa Sunday, Japan-based athlete Stephen Mayaka said the governments of Tokyo and Japan are extremely strict on Covid-19 protocols and will only step down restrictions if the global pandemic eases off ahead of next year’s Games.
The seminar, organised jointly by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) and the Sports Journalists’ Association of Kenya (SJAK), also learnt that NOC-K is working on embracing sports science in its local programmes.
Capital FM Sports Editor Alex Isaboke, his Citizen TV counterpart Mike Okinyi and former Kenya sevens rugby star, currently sports consultant, Felix Ochieng also made presentations on social media trends, relations between media and sportspeople and also how to create stars, respectively.
Nation Media Group Editor (Sports) Elias Makori, Athletics Kenya Coast Region chairman Dimmy Kisalu and Radio Africa Group Sports Editor Chris Mbaisi, who is also the SJAK President, also made presentations.
Mayaka, 48, a silver medalist in the half marathon (Catania, Italy, 1997) and 10,000 metres (Fukuoka, Japan 1995) said it is mandatory for one to take Covid-19 tests upon arrival in Japan, with the cost at around Sh30,000 per test.
“You should be prepared for a two-week mandatory quarantine period upon arrival, and these rules today are very strict and will only change if the situation improves as the governments of Tokyo and Japan are very serious in their fight against Covid-19,” Mayaka, who was born in Kenya but took up Japanese citizenship, said.
Mayaka, currently on the athletics coaching staff at the University of Obirin in Machida, Tokyo, also warned of high costs of travel from Olympic venues in Tokyo to the venue of the marathon and race walk competitions in Sapporo.
“Round trip air tickets from Tokyo to Sapporo cost as much as Sh63,000. Accommodation in Japan is also very expensive and you should be prepared to have good budgets,” he said.
Addressing seminar participants, drawn from various media houses countrywide, NOC-K acting secretary-general Francis Mutuku said sports science will be key in nurturing and mapping out athletes.
Mutuku said lack of experts in sports science has led to many players in the sports industry fast becoming irrelevant in their respective fields.
“We want to uplift and improve performance of different players in sports through sports science,” said Mutuku, adding that their initial focus will be athletes and coaches preparing for Olympic, Commonwealth and African Games.
NOC-K organized the workshop ahead of the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo Japan in July –August.
He said talks are ongoing between NOC-K and the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage to set aside land at Kasarani for the construction of sports science infrastructure.
“We want to set the sports science centre at Kasarani for now, and then move it out of Nairobi later on after it has developed,” he noted.
Mutuku added that NOCK-K has initiated scholarship programmes to help athletes better prepare for the major games with beneficiaries ranging from individuals to associations with potential to qualify for the Olympic Games.
He said that already, seven athletes are benefitting from Sh75,000 monthly scholarship support under the programme with the national women’s teams in volleyball (Malkia Strikers) and rugby (Lionesses) also beneficiaries.
“It is not a big funding per year but it is an amount of money that if well utilized, it can support sports,” he said.
He appealed to national associations to present their list of nominated players by January for vetting before they can be submitted to the International Olympic Committee for consideration for the 2021-2024 Olympic period.
Mutuku announced that so far, 83 athletes have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, but added that there is still a window for more athletes to qualify from next month to June.
“Now that we have resumed our sports after a long break due to Covid-19, we are training and giving support to the athletes for better performance at the Olympics next year,” he said.
