NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 15 – The World Athletics Under-20 championships slated for August 17-22 at Nairobi’s Moi International Sports Center Kasarani will be held behind closed doors, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed announced on Thursday.
The Sports CS alongside the event CEO Myke Rabar and chairman President Lt. Gen. Jackson Tuwei, made the announcement after inspecting the tartan track at the Kenyatta University where engineers from Spanish-based Mondo Track and Field last week laid a new synthetic track.
“The event will be spectator free unless the situation changes for the better and get greenlight from the World athletics, most of the major events like the Olympics are spectator free. We are going to set up screens in Nairobi and across the country for fans to follow the games,” CS Amina said.
The CS was happy with the progress made so far especially on the tartan track and assured that it will be ready in time to host the athletes.
“We have been assured that this tartan track is of the international standards and if a record is broken it will be ratified by the World Athletics. We will hand over the facility to the Kenyatta University once its complete,” Amina added.
Kenyatta University vice chancellor Professor Paul Wainaina said the facility which is one of the President Uhuru Kenyatta’s legacy will be of great impact to the University.
“The students, community have been waiting for this project for the last one year, we hope that the other elements that is adding two lanes of the track will be done in time. The standard of our game is going to go up.”
The CS while assuring that the country is ready to welcome more than 120 countries to Nairobi for the global track and field event said plans are underway to ensure huge screens are set up in the capital as well as other parts of the country so that fans can follow the proceedings as they happen.
“We are more than ready for the World Under-20 Athletics Championships and as I have been saying, this will give us an advantage because it has opened more opportunities for us to host major events in future,” Amina said
Meanwhile, Tuwei who is also the Athletics Kenya President said all the necessary things have been finalised ahead of next month’s Championships on the day the junior team commenced bubble training camp.
“As you know, bubble camps are now a requirement for the major events. With the teams leaving for Tokyo Games, we saw it fit that the juniors take over so that we can prepare them properly for the junior Championships,” Tuwei said.
