Pre-games camps key to good performance

Athletics fans in Kenya will remember women’s marathon race at the delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where Peres Jepchirchir kept the Olympic medal in Kenyan hands. She battled sweltering conditions in Sapporo with an ice pack constantly held to her chest during the race while also attempting to support her team mate Brigid Kosgei with the same, which she probably had found to be working to beat the heat and humidity.

World Athletics reported that 15 of the 88 women who started the race did not finish. Tokyo 2020 organisers had predicted challenging climatic conditions particularly for endurance athletes, which had led to the marathon venue being changed from Tokyo to Sapporo just a few months to the Games.

Environment adaptation is one of the major reasons that teams attend pre-games training camps prior to major international championships, in similar environmental conditions to those expected for the championship.

A pre-games training camp is a training organised by sports organisation and host sports centers or cities, offering delegations participating in a particular championship the opportunity to train in the host country in optimised conditions of the upcoming games.

Preparation camps provide opportunities to adapt and refine intervention strategies under the guidance of appointed team staff. According to the experts, heat acclimatization, periodized training, nutritional strategies may therefore contribute to the outcomes.

While acclimatisation is one of the major priorities for a pre-games camp, countries such as Kenya benefit from the offering of international level facilities to enrich the experience of the team.

Countries which are powerhouses in select events have multiple modern training facilities for the respective disciplines, which Kenya largely struggles with. Looking at some of the events in which Kenya has done relatively well, the athletes train and compete on everything but an ideal playing facility. Including volleyball, an indoor sport played mainly outdoors, hockey played internationally on artificial grass turf whereas in Kenya it is played mostly on murram. Martial arts lack the specialist mats, while some are competing without the modern scoring equipment.

With 537 days to the Paris 2024 Olympics, National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bouches-du-Rhône, a region in southern France, for pre-games training for Team Kenya. This was in a ceremony presided over by the NOC-K President Paul Tergat and leaders from Bouches-du-Rhône during the Indoor Athletics Meeting of Miramas at Stadium Miramas Métropole. Miramas will be the main training base.

For a training camp to work, all key variables must be in place; including the facilities, good climate and environment, transport, accommodation, nutrition, and adequate level of technical expertise, everything that Miramas is offering Team Kenya.

As we work towards Paris 2024 Olympics, NOC-K is ensuring that as many such strategic partnerships are in place.

Mutuku is the Secretary General at the National Olympic Committee of Kenya.

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