Africa’s fastest man in 100m Ferdinand Omanyala and Malkia Strikers captain Triza Atuka, have been selected as Kenyan flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the 33rd Paris Olympic Games this Friday along river Seine.
After making history by qualifying for the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Omanyala is returning to the Olympics for the second time.
He will join Kipchoge Keino (1964, 1972), Patrick Sang (1992), Paul Tergat (1996), Kennedy Ochieng (2000), and Grace Momanyi (2008) as the sixth Kenyan flag bearer in the athletics category.
Atuka, the Kenya National Volleyball Captain, will join Omanyala in leading the Kenyan team as they join over 200 other countries at the historic Nations Parade on Friday.
The Olympic Games officially get underway with the opening ceremony.
Kenya will once again have two flag bearers—a male and a female—in Paris in 2024.
The flag bearers at Tokyo 2020 were Andrew Amonde, the captain of the National Rugby 7 team, and Mercy Moim, the captain of the National Volleyball squad.
For the first time in history, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games will be held outside of a stadium.
The ceremony will take place along the River Seine in Paris, with each country positioned on different boats.
Double 1500m Olympic Champion Faith Kipyegon who will also compete in 5,000m and Kenya rugby 7’s captain Tony Omondi are the overall team Kenya captain at this year’s games.
The 81 competitors from Kenya will compete in six different sports: swimming, judo, volleyball, rugby sevens, athletics, and fencing.
The action will be beamed live and exclusively on KBC Channel 1 from 24th July till 11th August.