Kenya' s sole archer to Rio 2016 to keep pace with world' s best

Kenya will take a contingent of about 60 athletes to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Out of this number is one archer, Shehzana Anwar, 26, who with only one year' s experience as a 15-year-old in the game of archery represented Kenya at the 7th World Archery Games held in 2005 in Germany.

The inclusion of archery as one of the disciplines to be undertaken by the Kenyan team to the games is a rare spread for a country that has in the past relied heavily on athletics and to some extent boxing for Olympic representation.

"It has always been my dream to represent Kenya at the Olympic Games although I am aware I will be pitted against archers of immense acclaim," she said on Sunday.

Shehzana qualified to represent Kenya during the quadrennial games in February in Namibia during the Africa Olympics Qualifiers after she finished top in her Recurve category to book a direct ticket.

No other individual in the country has been as vocal as the chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), Kipchoge Keino, about Kenya diversifying into other disciplines to increase the nation' s medal haul.

"While Kenya waits for the track and field program to commence, countries like USA, China and Australia are usually many medals ahead because of the diversity of events the compete in," Keino has lamented in the past.

Currently ranked 210 in the world, Shehzana plans to take part in the World Cup scheduled for September in Odense, Denmark soon after the Rio games.

Her mother, Tabassum Anwar, who also doubles as her coach and team manager, said that unlike other professional archers who use two bows and as many as ten arrows during competition, Shehzana relies on one bow and two arrows only owing to limited resources.

"This enables one to have back up in case one bow breaks during competition. It is for this reason that Shehzana needs all the necessary backing in order to put Kenya on the world archery map," Tabassum said. Endit