All Africa Games: Kenyans outclassed in Tae Kwo Ndo

Kenya tae kwon do team arrives in Brazavville, Congo for the All Africa Games

Only one Kenyan Tae Kwo ndo player went beyond the first round after their controversial entry to the All Africa Games in Congo.

Martin Oduor beat an Ethiopian opponent in the first round, but fell to an Egyptian in the second round. He was fighting in the under 63 category.

Vincent Dock played on Thursday and lost to a Tunisian in the under 68 category.

Kenyans played four matches on Friday. Gladys Mwaniki lost to a Senegalese in the under 73 category in the first bout.

Milka Akinyi lost to a Senegalese in the under 57 category and Dora James lost to a Rwandese in her first bout of the under 47 category.

“They did well considering they travelled by road up to Rwanda. They did not even have a residential camp. Otherwise they would have won a medal,” said Suleiman Sumba, who is heading one of the factions claiming legitimacy in Tae Kwo ndo federation.

Meanwhile, Parliament will ask the treasury to allocate more funds for sports to cope with the increasing demands of infrastructural development, a member of the National Assembly’s committee for Social Welfare and Sports, Dan Wanyama has said.

Addressing Team Kenya delegation at the All Africa Games village in Brazzaville on Friday, Wanyama urged the Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary for Sports to arrange a meeting with federations to deliberate on their needs.

“We need to plan ahead so that we can perform better in future games,” Wanyama, who was overall captain of Team Kenya to 1999 All Africa Games in Johannesburg, and was a national volleyball team player, said.

“We have seen how these people have invested in sports infrastructure. We need to do the same at home. We will include this in our report to parliament because sports needs bigger allocation if we are to realise our potential,” said Wanyama.

Accompanied by MP for Embakasi East, John Omondi Ogutu, and MCAs from Elgeyo Marakawet County, among them 1997 world 3,000m steeplechase champion, Wilson Boit Kipketer and former two-time New York City Marathon and Boston Marathon champion, Christopher Cheboiboch, Wanyama condemned differences in sports federations that led to two Tae Kwo ndo teams coming to Brazzaville and urged the Commissioner for Sports to take stern action on those responsible for the embarrassing scenes in Brazzaville.

Wanyama regretted that issues affecting sportsmen and women during major games like lack of ceremonial kit have persisted and promised to lobby Parliament to ensure the Sports Act was adhered to and also amended from time to time to suit emerging circumstances.

On his part Ogutu urged the government to ensure continuous training programmes for the team and to develop proper youth programmes to ensure supply of talented athletes.