Kenya Question Exclusion Of Relay Team In Continental Cup.
Kenya is expressing discontent over the exclusion of her men’s 4×400m relay team that won gold during the recent Senior Athletics Championship held in Asaba Nigeria.
Athletics Kenya president Rt Gen Jackson Tuei is wondering how the relay team that won the African even with a historic time of 3.00.92 was left out. He questioned the criteria used by the CAA in selecting Team Africa which will represent the continent in the forthcoming games slated for Ostrava, Czech Republic.
“We’re wondering why our 4×400m men’s relay team was not included in the African team for Ostrava yet we won the title in Nigeria. In fact with a memorable championship record of 3:00:92. We don’t know which criteria they used to select a relay team,” Jackson Tuwei posed.
The Kenyan quartet of Alphas Kishoyia, Jared Momanyi, Aaron Koech and Emmanuel Korir won the event to formally book ticket to the quadrennial championship.
The Continental is being held since 2010, after replacing the previous Athletics World Cup, which will involves teams from Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
And to add insult on an injury, Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) has named just three athletes for the four-man event, picking Botswanans Nijel Amos, Baboloki Thebe and South African Phora Thapelo.
On overall composition of Team Africa, Kenya got a raw deal even after topping the Asaba showdown getting merely 9 athletes to Ostrava. The African athletics powerhouse Kenya had topped the selection with 19 medals but this was overlooked by CAA being headed by Cameroonian Kalkaba Malboum.
Malboum who is one of the four vice presidents sitting in the umbrella body. IAAF is yet to respond to the Kenya’s complaint.
Recently, Malboum had been criticized by some senior athletics editors for not meriting to sit in CAA top seat bearing in mind his country Cameroon don’t appear anywhere top in athletics.
The Cameronian who had beaten his only rival in IAAF elections, the late & former Athletics Kenya chief Isaiah Kiplagat failed to explained the under-par preparation in Asaba. He neither had words for flight drama from Lagos to Asaba prior the championship that saw several athletes getting stranded.
Asaba selection’s first runners up South Africa is having a bigger number of 20 athletes in the Ostrava bound team while Nigeria boasts of 16 athletes.
Morocco follows up with a total of six athletes, while Egypt and Ethiopia both have four athletes in Team Africa. Other countries, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Burundi, Swaziland, Uganda & Djibouti have a single representation each of athlete’s in Czech Republic showpiece.
