Daniel Ebenyo, the World 10,000m silver medalist, has criticized Athletics Kenya (AK) for excluding him off the Paris 2024 Olympics team.
Given his silver medal at the 2023 World Championships, Commonwealth Games, and World Half Marathon, Ebenyo was considered one of the favourites to represent Kenya in the 10,000m in the Olympics.
However, a series of disasters worked against him, and he ultimately missed out on the opportunity to compete in the famous Olympics.
Kenya’s trials for the 10,000m were held at the Prefontaine Classic, the Eugene Diamond League, in Oregon in May and Ebenyo arrived late owing to a visa delay and also tripped and fell during the race, ending up eighth, when only the first two across the line earned direct tickets.
Those tickets went to Daniel Mateiko and Nicholas Kimeli and any hopes of Ebenyo earning the third an final one from the Athletics Kenya panel of selectors went up in smoke when they settled on Bernard Kibet, who was third in Eugene.
“My expectations were to feature at the Olympics and everything was okay until the last minute when there were lots of issues,” Ebenyo told K24 TV on Saturday.
“From visa hitches, arriving at the trials late and I did not have enough time to recover. I arrived in the evening and the trials took place the following day.
“Athletics Kenya did not tell me anything and even up to now, no one from AK has spoken to me. I have never understood how they came to the conclusion.”
Ebenyo’s coach Erick Kogo is also of the opinion that his athlete deserved a spot in the team and had also been promised so.
“They had promised him an Olympics ticket even if he did not get a visa to the United States but when he tripped and fell, no one considered him again,” Kogo told the network.
“AK should have considered that the athlete went through several challenges. The panel did not do something good because his fall really left me heartbroken. We had done enough preparations but he had a lot of problems with his travel arrangements.”
However, AK had defended its decision in June, giving reasons why Ebenyo was snubbed for Kibet.
“We had a bit of a challenge with the travel documents but made sure that all the athletes who had been selected to go to Oregon go there for the trials, Ebenyo included. There was a challenge but we made sure they all ended up there and they came back safely,” said AK boss Jack Tuwei.
“Ebenyo made it there two days prior to the competition and he had an opportunity to rest and he had an advantage. All of them were okay and ready and the coaches prepared the athletes very well.”
Ebenyo will now seek to make amends at the Chicago Marathon after signing up for the race that will take place in October.
