On your marks, get set, go! global track and field extravaganza begins
The Timer board to be used during the IAAF World U18 championships at Kasarani Stadium. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU |
What you need to know:
- Athletics has finally come home as the 60,000-seater Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, christened ‘Home of Heroes’, hosts the 10th edition of World Under-18 Championships in Athletics starting Wednesday.
- The world youth competition, the first and largest track and field event Kenya has hosted since the 1987 African Games, has attracted 801 athletes drawn from 131 countries, including the hosts.
- This will be the second time Africa is hosting a world track and field event since the 2005 World Under-18 Championship in Marrakech, Morocco even though Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Morocco have hosted the World Cross Country Championships
Athletics has finally come home as the 60,000-seater Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, christened ‘Home of Heroes’, hosts the 10th edition of World Under-18 Championships in Athletics starting Wednesday.
The world youth competition, the first and largest track and field event Kenya has hosted since the 1987 African Games, has attracted 801 athletes drawn from 131 countries, including the hosts.
This will be the second time Africa is hosting a world track and field event since the 2005 World Under-18 Championship in Marrakech, Morocco even though Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Morocco have hosted the World Cross Country Championships.
Kenya, that has a team of 41 athletes and which won the bid to host the world youth competition that is in its last edition before it goes continental, has won the overall title twice - in the inaugural 1999 edition held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and in 2009 event in Brixen, Italy.
A lot has been invested in the championships since Kenya won the bid in 2014 what with the government pumping in Sh2.5 billion towards hosting the event.
That has seen Kasarani Stadium, built in 1987, receive a fresh look, with the competition arena and warm up areas getting modern tracks besides general refurbishment of the changing rooms and washrooms, among other areas.
Roads within the stadium have also been repaired. The idea of coming up with an Athletes’ Village at Kenyatta University has won accolades from IAAF President Sebastian Coe.
The University has had six of its hostels improved to the standard of a three-star hotel.
KU will also benefit from a new modern track that is coming up at the institution that has been earmarked for a high performance training centre by the IAAF. If the plan goes through, KU will be a model sports venue for other institutions.
“We welcome the world to the home of athletics and athletics heroes and heroines,” said Local Organising Committee chairman Jackson Tuwei, who is also the Athletics Kenya President.
