Over 70 aquatic stakeholders from Mount Kenya region convened on Thursday night during a virtual meeting to address and enhance standards of swimming across their locales, agreeing to boycott unsanctioned meets citing them as detrimental to both talent development and financial investments by parents.
Speaking on Friday from Laikipia County, Dr. Douglas Okatso the Director of Swim Safe Kenya who chaired the virtual meeting urged the formalization of county and club structures through registration with the sports registrar.
” The journey to proffesionalism has already started and each one of us has to be on-board if swimming in Kenya will become an attractive sport to both locals and internationals. Only proffesionals who are qualified will be allowed and if not, then we will not register our teams to their events,” said Dr. Okatso who expressed a worrying concern over the rising drowning incidents that are attributed to employment of uncertified personnel in schools and hotels.
The meeting highlighted the critical need for authentic qualifications among coaches, particularly emphasizing lifeguard certification to combat the prevalence of unqualified individuals posing risks under false credentials.
Omar Ali Omari, Chairperson of Kenya Aquatics Technical Committee emphasized the ongoing need for more professional coaches to boost their ability and nurture top-tier swimmers urging stake holders to take advantage of coaching and officiating clinics designed to empower local talent.
The stake holders also resolved to establish a harmonized regional calendar, a database to track swimmers’ rankings and accumulated FINA points and also commit to adopting a high-performance training regimen that includes early morning schedules to elevate the athletes’ competitive edge.
The meeting drew a diverse group that saw coaches, parents, officials, school administrators and senior athletes from Kiambu, Laikipia, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Embu, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Nakuru, Kirinyaga, and Muranga Counties coming together virtually with the main objective of developing Swimming within the Mt Kenya region.
