NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 25 – Athletics Kenya Boss Lt. Gen (Rtd) Jackson Tuwei remains hopeful that the postponed World Under-20 Championship will be slotted for next year, after being pushed from its initial July date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the Continental Tour already rescheduled for September, Athletics Kenya (AK) hopes that Kenya’s other global event, the World Under-20 will also get a new date.
“We have been in talks with World Athletics and by the end of the month we will know when the competition will be held. They had wanted to take it to 2022, but we said no, we want to have it at least next year. We have been discussing around that so hopefully we get a favorable response,” Tuwei stated on Thursday.
Having successfully hosted the World Under-18 Championship in 2017, the country was looking forward to another huge event, but with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the same wasn’t possible.
Meanwhile, AK says it will continue holding camps for the selected athletes to train once the current government restrictions are lifted.
AK established camps in all its regions last year where a selected group of athletes was put up before the trials to select the team.
Meanwhile, AK has continued to support the athletes in camp at this difficult time by offering food and cash stimulus to help them remain afloat and focused at this time. On Thursday, they gave the stimulus to over 40 athletes in the Nairobi camp.
“We have 20 different camps and Nairobi becomes our 17th camp to visit. We want to ensure that all athletes remain focused and we do the little we can do to help them deal with the effects of the pandemic,” AK Youth Committee chair Barnaba Korir stated.
The Committee will next visit the Coast Region where they will conduct the same exercise before concluding with a trip to North Eastern to help cushion the young athletes.
