Finally, it’s Kenya’s time to shine in youth championships

From 9.30am on Wednesday, Kenya will host the world’s finest young track and field athletes at Kasarani for the 10th IAAF World Under-18 Championships.

Sadly, it will be the last under-18 championships after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), at its congress in Rio de Janeiro last year, decided to scrap this age-group championship and focus on beefing up continental/area competitions for the youth.

The first under-18 championships were held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 1999 with 1,055 young athletes from 131 countries in action, and the number increased to 1,407 athletes from 153 countries at the last championships in Cali, Colombia.

From Wednesday, over 2,000 athletes and officials will parade at Kasarani to mark the final event of a series that has nurtured legends such as Kenenisa Bekele, Vivian Cheruiyot and Keshorn Walcott who all morphed from under-18 world champions into World and Olympic champions in track and field.

It’s not been easy securing these championships for Nairobi. Proudly, I celebrate the fact that having come up with the proposal to have Kenya bid for the championships, which I presented to Athletics Kenya in 2013, things have now come full circle and the action is just hours away!

It makes me truly proud. It took a lot of lobbying to secure the championships and credit must go to the government and Athletics Kenya for making available the finances and personnel to push the bid through in Monaco.

While visualising the championship and presenting the proposal to bid, I had in mind, primarily, the fact that these games will leave behind a big legacy.

Most importantly, new infrastructure will help develop another crop of top athletes that will stand Kenya in good stead in preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and other championships to come.

Already, Kenya’s team to the next month’s senior IAAF World Championships in London will shift their training to the refurbished Kasarani track next week for preparations ahead of the August 4-13 London competition.

They will be spoilt for choice with the main arena track and the warm up track both spanking new. Coaches and medics will agree that the new synthetic tracks laid by Mondo are of the highest quality thus minimising chances of injury for the athletes.

Kenyatta University, the athletes’ village for these championships, is another major beneficiary as it will enjoy the third Mondo track laid on campus.

On Tuesday, IAAF President Seb Coe will officially set rolling the traditional run-up to these championships with the pre-event press conference at Kasarani which will also feature the top young athletes on show, including Kenya’s Davis Saruni (400 metres) and Emmaculate Chepkirui (3,000 metres).

Many may have doubted Kenya’s ability to pull it off but on Monday, as First Lady Margaret Kenyatta toured the competition and warm-up arenas, the IAAF’s Press Delegate to the championships, Olaf Brockmann, confirmed that the media facilities at Kasarani are the “best ever” at an IAAF World Under-18 Championships.

“I have been to these championships since 1999 and I can confirm that the media facilities are the best, with one of the best media tribunes even for a senior championship,” said a visibly excited Brockmann who is handling media operations with IAAF’s Media Operations manager Lavinia Maffia.

“It’s incredible that there is not only free food for the media, but that the food is of great quality,” added Brockmann in reference to the catering at the Media Centre which is served out by the Sarova group.

There is even word that an open bar, courtesy of Kenya Breweries Limited, is in the offing at the Media Centre with lager-happy scribes gleefully preparing their throats for a beer fest of sorts after a hard day’s work chronicling the achievements of tomorrow’s stars.

With close to 200 journalists descending on Kasarani from Wednesday, these championships will offer an invaluable platform to market Kenya to a global audience.

Besides the action, organisers have lined up an entertainment village at Kasarani with a cocktail of live performances and kids’ entertainment.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and his Principal Secretaries Kirimi Kaberia (sports) and Joe Okudo (culture) have led the government’s spirited final push for a successful festival of athletics after the demise of Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery who spent most of the last few weeks personally supervising the sprucing up of the competition and residential venues as the head on an inter-ministerial team.

The more reason why Kenyans ought to pay a fitting tribute to the late CS by showing up in huge numbers to cheer Mogonga Secondary School Form Three student Mary Moraa to gold in the 200 metres, Rukia Nusra of St Francis Rang’ala in the 100 metres hurdles, or indeed Baringo High School’s Noah Kiprono in the 800 metres.

When President Uhuru Kenyatta and IAAF President Seb Coe declare the action open at 4pm on Tuesday, Kenyan sport will be the biggest winner.

The potential that our athletics future holds will never be in doubt. Previous hosts of the World Under-18 Championships (formerly World Youth Championships) are: 1999: Bydgoszcz (Poland); 2001: Debrecen (Hungary); 2003: Sherbrooke (Canada); 2005: Marrakech (Morocco); 2007: Ostrava (Czech Republic); 2009: Bressanone (Italy); 2011: Lille (France); 2013: Donetsk (Ukraine) and 2015: Cali (Colombia).

Let the games begin!