Tokyo 2020: Turmoil in Team Kenya camp over captaincy after Yego steps down citing frustrations by officials

Team Kenya General Manager Barnaba Korir has hit out at athlete Julius Yego for what he called ‘activism without facts’ after the javelin thrower stepped down from the captaincy over frustrations with having his coach in the bubble camp at Kasarani.

Yego, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist, had taken to his social media space to raise the complaint, rattling Korir.

Yego, who is struggling for form having thrown 75.58m this season, a far cry from his lofty personal best of 92.72m, was handed KSh400,000 to train in South Africa, but could not travel down South due to Covid-19 pandemic.

But Korir is now accusing Yego of not taking his training seriously, saying “the same people he is accusing are the ones who ensured he got the Sh400,000 IOC funding to train in South Africa in preparation for the Olympic Games.”.

“The government was also ready to match the IOC funding for the athlete to prepare well for the Olympics,” Korir was quoted by The Standard as saying Yego “had resorted to activism without facts”.

“Every athlete heading to Tokyo was expected to provide names of their officials. Even officials from the Ministry of Sports were asked to give details of officials who will be going to Tokyo. But he didn’t give details of his coach for Covid-19 testing protocols to enable him to join the bubble camp. But he has not reported.”

Yego admitted receiving the funding from IOC via Olympics Kenya.

“I can account for how I spent the money in my training but I couldn’t travel to South Africa because the country was not accepting foreigners at the time, due to Covid,” Yego told The Standard .

The javelin star has only competed twice this year, returning below-par throws of 67.70m during Athletics Kenya Pre-Trials at Nyayo Stadium on May 28 and 75.58m during the Olympic Games Trials at Kasarani on June 19.

The fact that his German rival Johannes Vetter hit a season-best of 96.29m on May 29, 93.59m on June 26 and 92.14 on June 29 is cause for concern about the Kenyan star’s prospects in Tokyo.