Pre-trials for Kenyan World Athletics Under-20 Championship team on show this weekend

Kenyan youth hopefuls converge on Kapsabet

JOHANNESBURG, May 21 (ANA) – Kenyan hopefuls for the World Athletics Under-20 Championship will be in action on Saturday at the Eliud Kipchoge Annex Stadium, in Kapsabet.

Athletics Kenya (AK) Central Rift secretary general Kennedy Tanui said as many as 200 junior athletes will compete at the event.

Korir told Kenyan public Nation Sport: “We really need to prepare our juniors for the world event but the most interesting thing is that talent crops up any time hence we must be alert,” said Tanui adding that the competition will feature all the events save for pole-vault.

“We are also on the look out for new talent too since a month is not enough to groom an upcoming talent,” said Korir adding a good number of their junior athletes graduated to senior ranks after the event was postponed from last due to Covid-19 pandemic.

“More so, we haven’t had school competitions and many weekend meetings to gauge these juniors,” explained Korir.

The youth competition was first scheduled for July last year, before Covid-19 forced a postponement. It will now be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from August 17 to 22 this year .

Around 2000 athletes from 160 countries are expected to compete.

As it stands, the event will be held one week after the Tokyo Olympics.

Kenyan cabinet secretary for sports Amina Mohamed was optimistic the event could be held without any hitches: “We have a winning template and are working to seal any existing gaps. 2021 will be a great sporting year for our country.

“We have expanded the medical team to ensure that all the emerging pandemic protocols are fully applied in order to guarantee that the event will be free and secure from Covid-19.” – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman