NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 18 – Athletics Kenya has ordered the closure of all athletics camps in the country in a bid to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, with the Health Ministry on Wednesday confirming three more cases in the country, taking the total to seven.
In a statement, AK has also warned any athlete against leaving the country as well as ensuring they always make their whereabouts known for the sake of anti-doping measures.
“All Athletics training camps and clubs should remain closed until further notice. Athletes are advised to continue training individually and coaches encouraged to continue monitoring individual athletes,” the statement from Riadha House read.
This comes even as Rongai Athletics Club head coach Bernard Ouma on Wednesday confirmed to Capital Sports that he had asked all his athletes to return to their respective homes for the next two weeks as they monitor the situation.
AK has also cancelled the planned track and field athletics meetings which were scheduled for Embu this weekend and Kisumu on the first week of April.
This is in line with a government directive that closed down all public sports facilities.
Meanwhile, the Association says it will scale down operations at it’s Riadha House offices located adjacent to the Bunyala Roundabout and only asked essential visits to ensure minimal contact and a reduction in possible spread of the virus.
“Stakeholders are encouraged to minimize physical visits to the office unless it is mandatory. In case of any urgent services from our offices, kindly call : 0736747217 from (8am to 5pm) or send an email through info@athleticskenya.or.ke,”
“To protect our workforce and their families AK has scaled down our offices operations & encouraged majority of our employees and stakeholders to operate remotely. AK will for the next 30 days maintain a very lean secretariat for essential services only,” the statement further stated.
With the London and Boston Marathons as well as the World Half Marathon Championships and World Indoor Championships already postponed, athletes have been training with their eyes on a possible retention of the Tokyo Olympics.
The IOC says it is monitoring the situation and will issue the way forward soon for the games which were set to start on July 24 in Tokyo.
