[kingsolo]

Kudos to the Kenyan Olympic team in Beijing for a sterling performance. Despite fielding a relatively young and perhaps inexperienced team the risk paid rich dividends and re-established Kenya as the premier athletics nation in long and middle distance events. As we celebrate our rich medal harvest, 5gold, 5silver and 4bronze let us introspectively evaluate areas where we could have improved our performance and medal haul. For starters we need to substantially broaden our events base. Out of 32 disciplines, Kenya only managed to participate in 5 and won 14medals all in one discipline! We need to improve our facilities both physical and technical, and simultaneously recruit professional coaches in every district and talent scouts to traverse the whole country in search of young raw talent.



Kenyans have proved to be strong in physical ability and rich in talent. The same however cannot be said of their mental or psychological power. Many countries including the USA have adopted Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Training techniques in athletic training and have used them with devastating effect to gain an edge on the “traditional athletes.” It is in this area that the Ethiopians and Moroccans are posing a serious challenge and threat to the Kenyans. It is absurd that our team does not have a resident psychologist or psycho-analyst in this day and age. Any coach worth his salt will tell you that athletes at Olympic competition level need to be adequately prepared physically, mentally and spiritually. This kind of holistic training will undoubtedly propel our athletes to even greater heights.