Kenya has withdrawn seven teams from the upcoming 25th Deaflympics in Tokyo, Japan, due to budget constraints.
The teams that have been dropped are women’s volleyball, women’s football, cycling, tennis, table tennis, badminton and bowling.
The Tokyo 2025 Summer Deaflympics will be held from November 15 to 26 in the Japanese capital.
Kenya was set to compete in 12 disciplines, but the number has been reduced to five — athletics, swimming, women’s basketball, men’s handball and golf.
“Initially, we had a contingent that had 12 disciplines, but we did some deliberations with the government officers in the Ministry of Sports, and we came to a decision that we had to reduce some of the teams,” said Team Kenya Chief Executive Officer Duncan Kuria.
“It was purely a money decision, nothing to do with looking at other disciplines as smaller or maybe condemning them that they cannot bring medals.”
Kuria said the selection of the dropped teams was based on international experience and previous performances on the global stage.
“It is one of the worst jobs when you are having to disappoint so many athletes who have trained for so long, trying to prepare for a top championship,” said the former boxer.
“We wanted to be represented by athletes who have international experience, maybe have competed at the Deaflympics or at the World Championships level and also look at the performance.”
He said the lack of African Deaf Championships had worked to the disadvantage of the teams dropped. Kuria singled out bowling as one of the teams that had shown signs of strong performance in Tokyo but had to be painfully excluded due to a lack of international exposure.
The women’s football team was dropped due to their dismal performance in the last edition of the Deaflympics in Caxias Do Sul, Brazil, in 2022.
“It was not our wish to do away with those teams. I had liked the idea of having to include some of the disciplines that were not there during the last Deaflympic Games in Brazil. To me, it was a good idea to include these other teams so that they get that experience of representing the country at that top level,” said Kuria.
Bernard Banja, the Team Kenya Chief de Mission, added: “We are working with a lean budget because we have had a series of events like CHAN and the World Cup qualifiers. It means that funds had to be earmarked for them, and we cannot compel the government to give us resources,” he remarked.
“We never thought of reducing the teams; it was not an easy thing. We discussed it and considered the criteria of selecting teams that have participated in the Deaflympics, World Championships and other sporting events internationally.”
Kuria said players in the dropped teams will be refunded the money they used for the hearing test — audiograms.
Kenya will now be represented by 177 athletes, who, alongside their officials, have entered residential training camp at Moi Stadium Kasarani.
by ANGWENYI GICHANA
