Athletics Kenya (AK) has come out clean on the circumstances surrounding 100 metres Africa Champion Ferdinand Omanyala’s delayed departure for the Oregon World championships.

The AK played down claims that it prioritized facilitating government officials to the United States over athletes.

The athletics body stated that preparations for the World Athletics Championships started early enough including travel arrangements for the contingent of athletes. According to AK, the Ministry of Sports did not take part in the process of arranging travel plans. A contingent of 80 athletes and officials was selected back in June after the national trials. AK further contracted an international firm to process travel documents for the team.

“Athletics Kenya engaged an external expert firm to process visa applications for the traveling delegation to ensure a smooth process without challenges. Athletics Kenya did not engage the Ministry during these initial visa applications,” stated AK President, Jackson Tuwei.

Every athlete was issued the requisite travel documents on July 9th save for Omanyala who had some issues to iron out with the US embassy. According to AK, Omanyala was required to fill in an additional form to clarify some issues. This led to the delay for his departure and eventually the saga that saw him arrive in the US hours to his first race. 

“The rest were issued with their visas two days later while Omanyala’s passport was not released. We were informed that he needed to fill an additional form referred to as supplementary questions for visa applicants, to verify some facts,” read a statement in part.