Kenyan Olympic athletics trials moved to Kasarani

By ANA Sports On May 19, 2021

Kenyan Olympic trials moved

A group of runners at the front of the women’s 3000m — File pic. Odile Nintije of Burundi, Mercy Chepkorir Kerarei of Kenya, Miyaka Sugata of Japan and Alesia Zarbo of France lead the pack in the women’s 3000m (stage 1) on the first day of the athletics programme in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games at the Youth Olympic Park athletics stadium in Buenos Aires in Argentina on Thursday October 11 2018. Photo by Roger Sedres (CanonSA/Africa News Agency/ANA)

JOHANNESBURG, May 19 (ANA) – The Kenyan Olympic athletics trials were on Tuesday moved from Eldoret to Kasarani.

Originally slated to take place at the Kipchoge Keino Stadium, the event will now be held at the Moi International Sports Centre in Kasarani – a residential area in Nairobi. The trial will take place from June 17 to 19, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics from July 23 to August 8.

The move, according to Athletics Kenya (AK) was precipitated by the need to test the Moi International Sports Centre’s readiness to host the World Athletics Under-20 Championship from August 17 to 22 at the same location.

The Kipchoge Keino Stadium, though, has not yet been fully renovated – as discovered by AK president Jack Tuwei in a visit to the site last week.

AK said in a statement: ”After much deliberations and analysis of current state of events, MISC seems an appropriate venue for the championships.

“Athletics Kenya would like to apologise to stakeholders for any inconvenience caused by this change and ask the requisite athletes to make prior arrangements to attend the event.”

Despite growing Covid-19 concerns and the ability of African nations to host major sporting events, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) in Kenya insist the country will be ready to hold the World Athletics Under-20 Championships.

LOC chairman Mike Rabar revealed Kenya had representatives at the World Relay Championships in Silesia, Poland, at the beginning of May to see how top events are currently being handled in adherence to Covid-19 safety protocols.

Rabar said: “They (the medics) were there a few days earlier (than Team Kenya) as part of an observer program to understand the different protocols required to deal with athletes, technical officials, and fans.

“They went through the process to set up Covid-19 centres and the bubble programs. These lessons have been shared with the different directorates under the organising committee.” – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman