With only a few days before final nominations for spots to compete at the  Olympic Games and little less than a month until the start of them, African Olympians are trying to finalize their selections while preparing for their moment on the Olympic stage. Meanwhile, with two months before their own event, African Paralympians continue their own preparations this week including qualification competitions and tournaments that aid in team selection. With a 25,000 grant on offer to any Olympic team willing to base themselves in the  ahead of the Games, several national delegations took advantage of the opportunity to arrive early to train, acclimate and get the full Olympic experience. Gambia, Lesotho, and Egypt are a few countries that took advantage of the grant program. Egypt's athletes will spend two weeks at the Forum sports complex in Antrim, Northern Ireland. Gambia's Olympians will prepare for the Games at the University of York's Huntington Athletics Stadium. Algeria's Paralympians are also preparing for London. Earlier this week, the national team participated in a  hosted tournament featuring teams from Lithuania, , , , , , the , and w|England . The team coach Mohamed Bettahrat talked about the tournament, saying to the French language Algerian papaer La Tribune, "A new opportunity to work with the great nations offered to us to optimize our preparation for the upcoming Paralympic Games. This is a great tournament that brings together renowned this time, the selections that will be present in London, one of our group." tournament performance played a role in final team selection. Past Kenyan Paralympians Joseph Kibunja and Henry Wanyoike in Hong Kong a few years ago Mandatory Bristol based training has been arranged by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya for nation's runners ahead of the Games but Kenya's runners have implied this will disrupt their preparations. Middle-distance runner is quoted in The Star of  in response to this mandate, "I'm not for the idea because all along, we have been training in high altitude and switching to the low altitude in Bristol is likely to be counter productive." The Bristol idea is also opposed by Athletics Kenya, with the organization's chairman Isaiah Kiplaga saying "The athletes have put in hard work for the last couple of months for the Olympic Games and Bristol being a low altitude area, it will hurt our medal hopes." Kenya's runners are expected to leave for London in two waves, with the first group leaving early next week and the second wave, which includes long distance runners, leaving closer to the start of the Games. For two weeks, seven to nine Lesotho Olympians will prepare for the Games in north  , in . Local Welshmen have been recruited to assist Lesotho competitors in their preparations for the Games, with local organizers looking for potential sparring partners if Lesotho qualifies a boxer. Two Lesotho marathon runners have already qualified. Swimmer needs alternative arrangements because the Wrexham pool is only 25 meters, half the distance of the Olympic course pool. What strokes Theko will compete in at the Games is still to be determined. At least two of  's Olympians go into the Games having competed in their sports at universities in the United States. One attended . Another, , attended the and will represent the country in the decathlon after having qualified for the event. London bound  , who qualified for the London Olympics earlier this week in the 1500 meter event during the seminfinals at the African Senior Athletics Championships in Benin, made the event final to be run later today. Fellow countryman is also competing. She needs to set an Olympic qualifying time in the final in order to book her own trip in the 5000 meter event.
With only a few days before final nominations for spots to compete at the London Olympic Games and little less than a month until the start of them, African Olympians are trying to finalize their selections while preparing for their moment on the Olympic stage. Meanwhile, with two months before their own event, African Paralympians continue their own preparations this week including qualification competitions and tournaments that aid in team selection. With a 25,000 grant on offer to any Olympic team willing to base themselves in the United Kingdom ahead of the Games, several national delegations took advantage of the opportunity to arrive early to train, acclimate and get the full Olympic experience. Gambia, Lesotho, and Egypt are a few countries that took advantage of the grant program. Egypt's athletes will spend two weeks at the Forum sports complex in Antrim, Northern Ireland. Gambia's Olympians will prepare for the Games at the University of York's Huntington Athletics Stadium. Algeria's Paralympians are also preparing for London. Earlier this week, the national team participated in a Lithuanian hosted tournament featuring teams from Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, Brazil, Belgium, the United States of America, and England . The team coach Mohamed Bettahrat talked about the tournament, saying to the French language Algerian papaer La Tribune, "A new opportunity to work with the great nations offered to us to optimize our preparation for the upcoming Paralympic Games. This is a great tournament that brings together renowned this time, the selections that will be present in London, one of our group." tournament performance played a role in final team selection. Past Kenyan Paralympians Joseph Kibunja and Henry Wanyoike in Hong Kong a few years ago Mandatory Bristol based training has been arranged by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya for nation's runners ahead of the Games but Kenya's runners have implied this will disrupt their preparations. Middle-distance runner is quoted in The Star of Nairobi in response to this mandate, "I'm not for the idea because all along, we have been training in high altitude and switching to the low altitude in Bristol is likely to be counter productive." The Bristol idea is also opposed by Athletics Kenya, with the organization's chairman Isaiah Kiplaga saying "The athletes have put in hard work for the last couple of months for the Olympic Games and Bristol being a low altitude area, it will hurt our medal hopes." Kenya's runners are expected to leave for London in two waves, with the first group leaving early next week and the second wave, which includes long distance runners, leaving closer to the start of the Games. For two weeks, seven to nine Lesotho Olympians will prepare for the Games in north Wales , in . Local Welshmen have been recruited to assist Lesotho competitors in their preparations for the Games, with local organizers looking for potential sparring partners if Lesotho qualifies a boxer. Two Lesotho marathon runners have already qualified. Swimmer needs alternative arrangements because the Wrexham pool is only 25 meters, half the distance of the Olympic course pool. What strokes Theko will compete in at the Games is still to be determined. At least two of Liberia 's Olympians go into the Games having competed in their sports at universities in the United States. One attended . Another, , attended the and will represent the country in the decathlon after having qualified for the event. London bound Ugandan , who qualified for the London Olympics earlier this week in the 1500 meter event during the seminfinals at the African Senior Athletics Championships in Benin, made the event final to be run later today. Fellow countryman is also competing. She needs to set an Olympic qualifying time in the final in order to book her own trip in the 5000 meter event.
A
London
A
United Kingdom
A
Lithuanian
D
, , , , , the , and
R
w|England
Finland, Sweden, Turkey, Brazil, Belgium, the United States of America, and England
A
Nairobi
A
Wales
A
Liberia
A
Ugandan