Maluki and team have work cut out for Paris Olympics preps

It’s exactly 540 days to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games today and excitement is already building up ahead of the qualification tournaments set to begin this year.

On Monday, Cabinet Secretary for Sports Ababu Namwamba appointed the lead team for the Paris Olympics led by Kenya Judo Federation president Shadrack Maluki who will be the Chef de Mission.

Tennis Kenya Secretary-General Wanjiru Karani will serve as Chief Executive Officer, while Dimmy Kisalu and James Odenge will be the General Team Manager and Chief Medical Officer respectively.

All eyes will be on Maluki and his team to ensure that Team Kenya preparations for the Summer Games will be top notch and that Kenya qualifies more teams/individuals to the Games than the delayed Tokyo 2020 edition held in 2021.

After a shambolic Rio 2016 Olympic Games that was marred with controversy and corruption scandals, Kenya Volleyball Federation President Waithaka Kioni restored trust in National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) after delivering a successful Tokyo 2020 Olympics that yielded 10 medals; four gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

Athletics will most probably contribute majority of Team Kenya’s contingent to Paris, but various team sports have shown potential of qualifying in the recent past.

Four team sports made the cut to represent Kenya at the Tokyo Olympics namely Malkia Strikers (indoor and beach volleyball), Shujaa and Kenya Lionesses (rugby).

While volleyball stand a good chance of making back-to-back appearances at the Olympic Games, the qualification of both rugby teams is under serious threat if Shujaa’s performances in the World Rugby Sevens Series this season is anything to go by.

Damian McGrath’s charges are rich fodder for relegation and the recent retirement of Collins Injera and Willy Ambaka has done little to improve Shujaa’s dwindling standards.

In fact, they have to pray South Africa finish in the top four to secure an automatic slot to Paris and skip the African qualifiers.

Even then, Kenya will not have it easy in the continental event since Zimbabwe and Uganda have proved to be worthy opponents notably in last year’s World Cup qualifiers where Shujaa finished third behind both countries.

It’s not lost on anyone that the Lionesses embarked on the trip to Tokyo only after South Africa decided not to field their women’s team who had won the African qualifiers.

Beating South Africa will once again prove a tall order for Dennis Mwanja and his girls.

Malkia Strikers, placed first in Africa according to the latest FIVB rankings, could face stiff competition from Cameroon if the West African country manages to convince their stars Christelle Nana, Laetitia Moma and Stephanie Fotso to rescind their decision to retire early.

Morocco, South Africa and Mozambique have also refined their women beach volleyball teams which could pose a serious challenge for Kenya.

It’s an open secret that it’s much more difficult for a team sport to qualify for Olympics and this calls for early preparations which Maluki and his team should ensure they get right.

More importantly, the tales of unpaid allowances and demoralized players, which have become a recurring theme in Kenyan sport, should not occur during the qualification pathway if Kenya is to qualify more teams to Paris.

A bigger contingent to Paris translates to better chances for Kenya to get a medal beyond athletics and this will be a major plus for Maluki.

Kioni restored the confidence of local sports stakeholders in NOC-K through a well-coordinated Tokyo Olympics and the onus is on Maluki to show the Paul Tergat-led NOC-K has come of age by delivering a memorable Paris Olympics.

Over to you Maluki and team!

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