MIRAMAS, France, Jul 10 – Being his first time in the Southern City of France, Africa javelin champion Julius Yego is already loving the vibe that Miramas is offering.
Yego, who qualified for his fourth successive Olympic Games, led a group of 23 athletes comprising of sprinters and few rugby players, who arrived Wednesday at the Marseille International Airport for a two-week Pre-Olympic Games in Miramas.
This is the second batch of Team Kenya to touch down in France, the host country of the 2024 Summer Games, after the national sevens team set the pace on Tuesday.
Speaking to Capital Sport upon arrival in Marseille, Yego, the 2016 Olympics silver medalist, said he is enjoying the hot weather conditions that he will face in Paris during the games that are slated to officially start July 26.
The heat in Miramas is ranging from 30 degrees Celsius and is projected to increase as the days nears to the Games.
“I am delighted to be here in Miramas, it’s my first time, the weather is good for training especially for sprinters, we thank God we are here because the preparations are one of a kind, this is what we asked for as athletes and has been provided, now what is left is us to work hard in training and focus on the Olympics,” Yego, who threw his season’s best of 80.24m at this year’s Africa Athletics Championships, disclosed.
Yego will be throwing all his focus on the final phase of training in Miramas, and hope it will propel him better his 2016 Olympics performance in Rio, a result that will make him become the first Kenyan to win an Olympic gold in Javelin.
“This will be my fourth appearance at the Olympics, my advice to the other athletes especially those who are making a debut, this is another competition, although it is a bigger one, just focus doing the right thing, there is no magic, don’t compete with anyone else but compete against your time or the distance because what matters is the best to come out of you,” Yego, the 2015 world champion advised.
Yego will start his competition at Paris Olympics August 6.
Other athletes who jetted in with Yego are majorly sprinters led by 400m national champion Zablon Ekwam accompanied by National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) Executive Member, Paul Otula.
Otula acknowledged that this is the best prepared team to the Olympics and is confident Kenya will deliver at the Games that begins in 16 days.
“The journey to Miramas has been smooth, it is quite important for the team to have a Pre-Olympics camp because other than acclimatization, it is important for the youngsters to gel with the environment so that by the time we are getting to the games it is an environment that they are used to, so this is a good support from NOC-K,” Otula, the Kenya Basketball Federation boss said.
“This is the best prepared team to the best of my memory, you leave the rest to God, I am sure these youngsters will surprise the world,” he added.
Africa 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala, fresh from winning the Hengelo Continental Tour race, joined the camp Wednesday evening from Netherlands alongside his coach, Geoffrey Kimani.
The National Volleyball Team Malkia Strikers are set to arrive on Thursday morning well in time ahead of the official pre-camp opening ceremony party slated for the evening.
Already in camp are the National Men’s Sevens Team who were the first batch to arrive on Tuesday.
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Miramas, France-
