Kip Keino stadium in Bristol the place to be

Eldoret has for years churned out top class athletes and now they have been given a new incentive to pitch camp and train at the Kip Keino stadium in Bristol City, England for the London Olympics in 2012.

Of course international sporting events are about nothing but national pride and with the London Olympics just round the corner, Kenya has secured itself a training ground, not at the Eldoret-based Kipchoge Keino stadium that lies in ruins, but in a new state-of-the-art sports facility worth Sh62.5 million (£17.5 million) in Bristol City.

The Bristol Academy of Sport has honoured the legendary Kenyan athlete by naming the modern athletics stadium, built within the Bristol Academy of Sport campus located on the outskirts of Bristol Town, The Kip Keino Athletics Stadium.

It will be a home-away-from-home for the Kenya team with cities in England willing to host different Olympic squads before they move into the official Olympic village in two years’ time.

In Beijing 2008, Kenya was ranked 15th overall out of the 204 countries that had paraded their best sporting talent. Local athletes clinched a total of five gold, five silver and four bronze medals.

Keino was present during the opening of the stadium in Bristol accompanied by Sports Minister Paul Otuoma, permanent secretary James Waweru, secretary of Sports Wilson Langat, commissioner of Sports Gordon Oluoch and Kenya’s deputy High Commissioner in London Joe Sang.

Keino, the chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock), said the naming of the athletic track was not only an honour to him, but to the people of Kenya and Bristol, and to a larger extent, the children of the world who continue to strive relentlessly to achieve and be the best in the world of sports.

“It is these young people that we have to think of, it is their future that matters to us and we have a responsibility to protect and nature them,” Keino said.

Keino won gold in 1500m at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico and claimed gold over the 3,000m steeplechase distance in Munich in 1972. He now sits on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive committee. The Kenya-Bristol partnership is a project whose vision is using London 2012 to change people’s lives.

The unveiling of the stadium was witnessed by Keino together with Bob Reeves, the chairman of the Bristol-Kenya Partnership and a key figure at the University of Bristol, where he serves as the director of sport.

Reeves has been the driving force behind the project and has been working closely with Keino on its development for the past year.

Many Bristol schools will engage in partnership with schools in Kenya, one of the features of the partnership, over and above sporting matters, in a ‘Healthy Schools’ initiative.

Bristol’s professional football, cricket and rugby clubs will engage with the Kenyan National Governing Bodies and set up coach and player development activities with them.

Promising young athletes

Reeves and Keino are also exploring commercial and cultural development opportunities as well as student exchanges. Reeves will also identify some promising young athletes from Bristol who will go to Kip Keino’s IAAF Athlete Performance Centre in Eldoret.

The launch took place at Ashton Park School which, as part of the Kenya-Bristol Project, has a twinning arrangement with a school in Kenya.

Keino also gave the pupils at the school a talk about the Kenya-Bristol Project, and the lucky few had a 30-minute session on what it is like to be an Olympic champion and also life beyond sport.

Keino has moved to enhance education in his village and has built Keino Primary School located near Eldoret, while Kip Keino Secondary School opened earlier this year.

The athletics legend also runs a charitable organisation for orphans and has the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret named after him.