Sports development in Africa is on my mind. I am asking myself probing questions. Uganda produced a John Akii-Bua in the early 1970s. He was the greatest hurdler in the world at the 1972 Olympics.
Tanzania produced Filbert Bayi in the mid- 1970s. He was the greatest middle distance runner in the world in the early 1970s.
What is common to all these countries that is helping them breed quality runners in this corner of the world? In order to accommodate them, the Kenyans have built camps in the training areas of simple and unsophisticated sports infrastructure. The environment is their perfect training grounds. This has influenced the establishment of an authentic sports tourism business to compliment the well-established Safari-tourism that has been the mainstay of the Kenyan economy for decades.
So, when you look at the medals table of the most successful countries at the Olympic Games, Kenya would never be in the single digits, yet the whole world considers them a global force in the area of their specialisation.In looking at the case of Kenya, another country, whose name is also bigger than most global brands these days, one sees a similarity with Jamaica.
A few Jamaican coaches, working in conjunction with some African American coaches went to the US and received the required training in the San Jose University established tradition of training sprinters. They returned to Jamaica and, for close to to decade, struggled to convince the government to domesticate the process of developing this throng of natural sprinters within Jamaica by copying the Collegiate system that worked so well in America.
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