NOC-K to put up High Performance Centre

The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) is seeking partners to put a High Performance Centre (HPC) in the country in the next one year.

At the same time, NOC-K has partnered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through OlympiAfrica Foundation to put up another centre preferably at a populous area to draw primary school children to sports.

NOC-K acting secretary general Francis Mutuku has disclosed that the HPC is part of their long term approach to have their wholly owned and run facility primarily for national teams and elite athletes with an aim of participating in the Olympics.

“The HPTC will be a multi-functional and multi-disciplinary facility that will offer sports medical and scientific services to our elite athletes,” Mutuku said in a statement following the NOC-K executive committee meeting on Friday last week in Naivasha.

“Among the services envisioned to be provided are physiological testing and monitoring, performance analysis, planning of scientific and individualised training programmes,” explained Mutuku.

Strength and conditioning

Mutuku said that biomechanical assessment, psychological testing, counseling and strength and conditioning services will also be provided.

Before establishing the HPTC, Mutuku said the executive also resolved to take both short and medium term measures that will see NOC-K enter into partnerships with facilities which can be used for training of the Olympics team.

These can be either institutions facilities or private facilities meeting the requisite standards as advised by NOC-K elite performance team.

“Our medium-term approach will be to enter into possible lease arrangements with these institutions to develop a High Performance Centre. This will mean enhancing the existing facility to suit our needs,” said Mutuku.

Early exposure

NOC-K’s Youth Commission has been working on the concept of OlympiAfrica in Kenya and the executive adopted its proposal for implementation.

OlympiAfrica Foundation is an initiative of the IOC to have vibrant programs in Africa. The foundation is in over 40 Africa countries including Somalia but this is the first time it's being set in Kenya.

“The general idea is to establish a centre from which youngsters at primary school level can be exposed to international standards of infrastructure and training at a very early age,” said Mutuku adding that the activation of OlympicAfrica in Kenya will help greatly.

This will also be a center for the Youth Commission to run the youth camp programs over the holidays. “The vision of the centre is to have selected sporting infrastructure that has international standards equipment for identified sports so that the youngsters can be trained on a continued basis,” said Mutuku.

IOC formed the OlympiAfrica Foundation with the objective of promoting the development of sports in Africa through its Olympism network.