IAAF backs bid to stage youth event in Kenya

DOHA, Qatar, 

Athletics Kenya should stop agonizing over the strength of their bid to host the 2017 IAAF World Youth Championships in Nairobi, the head of global athletics Lamine Diack has said. 

Diack spoke positively about Nairobi’s bid noting that a youth championship should be fairly easy to organize provided that the hosts get the basics right. 

Speaking in Qatar ahead of Thursday’s season-opening Doha Diamond League meeting, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president proposed that rather than worry about five-star hotel accommodation, organisers should make sure they have good university accommodation for the teams. 

Nairobi has put in a bid to host the event with the IAAF also clearing bids from Argentina capital Buenos Aires and US city Greensboro for the biennial competition for athletes aged 17 years and younger. 

Should Nairobi win the bid, then it will be the biggest event to ever have been staged in Kenya, even surpassing the 1987 All Africa Games in Nairobi and 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa because of the numbers expected, diversity of events and global appeal. 

“For the World Youth Championships, the hosts should not worry about  big hotels because we want the youths to share the same accommodation like a family. University hostels would thus be good enough,” Diack said.

YOUNG ATHLETES

“IAAF encourages the spirit of family among its young athletes and university accommodation would be best suited for a global games rather than fancy, five-star hotels,” he added. 

“Kenya hosted a great IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa,” Diack told the Daily Nation. “We will visit Nairobi to inspect a few things but I’m sure Kenya is capable and Uganda can also host a cross country championship.”

The IAAF president’s statement will no doubt ease the pressure off Athletics Kenya and its bid team whose biggest headache has been identifying hotels that are good enough yet affordable to host the large contingent . 

With Kasarani as the proposed venue for the event, the adjacent United States International University would  be the front-runner to host the Athletes’ Villages.  Kenya’s bid was approved by the IAAF’s Council at its meeting in Dakar last month along with bids of Greensboro and Buenos Aires.

Already, the Kenyan government has given its guarantee to support Nairobi’s bid and Diack said a team from the IAAF would soon be in Nairobi to assess other aspects of organisation. 

The IAAF Council will make the final announcement of the winning bid at its annual Council meeting in Monaco in November this year.

 Kampala is also bidding to host the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2017 riding on the success of this year’s Africa Cross Country Championships that the Ugandan capital hosted.

 Athletics Kenya is expected to soon announce the composition of its official bidding team for Nairobi 2017 which would be comprised of chief executives of key blue chip companies, Nairobi County’s top political leadership along with media and marketing professionals.