NAIROBI, Kenya, May 14 – The first batch of Team Kenya for the 2020 Olympic Games is scheduled to depart July 5 for a 12-day training camp in Kurume City, Japan before heading to Tokyo to compete for the Summer Games.
This was confirmed on Thursday by the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Heritage Amina Mohamed who said that while in Japan, the team will strictly adhere to the Tokyo 2020 Playbook which has all the guidelines for COVID-19 protocols.
“The Ministry, in conjunction with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) and the Kenya National Paralympic Committee (KNPC) will continue to educate and sensitize athletes on the playbook with daily activity logs submitted to the Ministry by the General Team Managers until the conclusion of the Games,” CS Amina said.
Meanwhile, the CS released a revised sports resumption guideline among them is a direction that all federations are expected to submit weekly returns of COVID-19 tests carried out on active athletes.
COVID-19 testing will be mandatory at the cost of Sports Federations, Sports Organisations, participants, or event organizers as applicable for all competitions while team Kenya testing costs shall be met by the Government.
Football Kenya Federation are the first to kick-off resumption of sports in the country since it was halted in March following a surge of COVID-19 cases in the country.
However, as FKF BetKing Premier League kicks-off today (Friday), no spectator will be allowed in any sporting activity according to the revised guidelines.
Federations entering teams for international events will be required to seek travel clearance from the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Heritage and the designated Team Medical Personnel (with training in Medicine).
“The Ministry will not authorize travel to countries where the COVID-19 case load is established to be high or where the Ministry of Health advises to be high risk. The Ministry will prepare and release elaborate bubble camp training and event protocols. All Olympic participating teams will be accommodated at designated Bubble training camps in strict compliance with these Guidelines, the Ministry of Health Guidelines and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games playbooks,” Amina stated.
“Testing of Athletes shall be done every 96 hours until the commencement of the Olympic Games to ensure that Kenyan athletes are safe and exposed to the rigors of COVID-19 control expected in Tokyo.”
Private fitness clubs were given green light to re-open immediately and observe all the containment measures including strict social distancing, sanitization, handwashing among other measures as provided in the Guidelines.
All Under 18 Sports remain suspended only special consideration will be granted to National Teams preparing for select international events.