2017 Youth bid must have face of our athletes

Soya Founder and Chairman Paul Tergat. PHOTO | FILE |

What you need to know:

  • It is even more insulting and contradicting when the same organisation insinuates that the bid committee is highly technical and beyond comprehension of our top athletes.
  • Our very own Paul Tergat has done a lot for this country and he is currently an IOC member — just what other credential does he need to sit in that committee?

The naming of the 2017 World Youth Championships Bid Committee by Athletics Kenya (AK) leaves no doubt that someone somewhere is not being honest.
I find it quite funny that after naming the Bid Committee in full glare of the cameras, AK has turned around to claim that they have not reached a stage where athletes are to be included.

It is even more insulting and contradicting when the same organisation insinuates that the bid committee is highly technical and beyond comprehension of our top athletes. So what job do we have for our stars — picking garbage after the event?

Surely, what is so technical about hosting a junior championship? — and who is fooling who? It is a pity that such an important event can be ratified without informing the AK executive committee members. I am a member of the executive committee and at no time did we discuss the composition of the committee.

So when AK says runners don’t understand the bid process, what message are they sending to the international community. Our very own Paul Tergat has done a lot for this country and he is currently an IOC member — just what other credential does he need to sit in that committee?

FORMER COMMONWEALTH CHAMP

We equally have Mike Boit, a former 800m Commonwealth champion, who is currently a lecturer at Kenya University and Kipsang Metet, a former marathon and Olympian based at Nairobi University. Are we telling the world that the three would contribute little to the bid?

Throw in legendary Kipchoge Keino, Tegla Loroupe, Catherine Ndereba, Olympic 1,500m champion Noah Ngeni and Patrick Sang —surely what are we telling the world? Ladies and gentlemen, we are the home of champions and I am sorry to say the calibre of list we have doesn’t quite portray a running nation that we are.

First, the reason why we are bidding for this event is because we are an athletics nation and there is no way we can make the move without involving our runners.

As I said earlier, in this world, names sell and athletes would like to associate with fellow athletes.When England were bidding for Olympic Games, they used David Beckham while countries like Morocco, South Africa and many others have used their legends to bid for events. Our bid should have the face of our stars.

AK must come clean on this and stop behaving as if the world doesn’t exist beyond Riadha House.