:eek: KENYA SACKED ALL IT’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS TEAM COACHES. THIS OPTION WASN’T OPEN TO :mad: AUSTRALIAN ATHLETICS WHICH - WITH A HANDFULL OF EXCEPTIONS AMONG DEVELOPING RUNNERS - PERFORMED POORLY IN HELSINKI: THEY ALREADY SACKED ALL 24 OF THEIR CONTRACTED COACHES FIVE MONTHS BEFORE MARCHING TO IN-GLORY IN HELSINKI. :rolleyes:
Athletics Kenya sacks coaches in Helsinki
By Chris Mbaisi in Helsinki
Coaches who handled the Kenya team to the Helsinki World Champions have been fired.
The move follows the country’s poor performance.
Athletics Kenya chairman Isaiah Kiplagat said in Helsinki yesterday the team’s problems stemmed from poor coaching and involved should count themselves jobless.
He said the AK coaching committee seemed to have ignored many factors while selecting coaches.
“They seem to operate on a rotational basis and in the process we end up with the wrong people in charge,” Kiplagat said.
He took issue with coach Muchoki whom he said had not even found time to visit athletes in Eldoret. The other coaches are Joseph Chelimo and Peter Mathu.
“Time for ad-hoc coaching is over. We need coaches who understand the nitty gritty of the business,” he said.
Ethiopian runners have dominated the middle distance races with Kenyan-turned-Qatari Seif Shaheen claiming the men’s 3,000m steeplechase race – for many years Kenya’s assured gold.
Kiplagat noted that the coach of the Ethiopian team had a 20-year experience adding that the next Kenya coach should look forward to a long-term contract.
“We are not going to pick coaches at random again. As you can see this system is hurting us a lot,” he complained.
He said all the candidates for the positions would have to produce their curriculum vitae before being considered.
He said successful candidates will have to undergo a classroom course at Kasarani before coming up for the final selections.
The AK boss said the association would settle for only
three to five coaches who will be permanent for the next 10 years.
" We want to have consistency in coaching just like Ethiopia and other countries," he said .
He said the Kenyan coaches did not understand their runners well.
“If you ask them the progression of the runners, they will not tell you. They do not even have a coaching programme,” he claimed.
Besides, he said the coaches tend to be intimidated by the athletes to the extend of asking them how they want to be coached.
He explained that running had become high-tech and it was not just a matter of standing on the sides and shouting on top of your voice as runners make the rounds.
“Let me reach home, they will all be out of a job before they realises it. This time I will put my foot down irrespective of what they want to say,” said an angry Kiplagat.
He said coaching was not about telling an athlete to run from the back or front but to play with his psyche and help him win.
He asserted that he has no intention of recycling coaches.