What rescheduled Continental Tour means for Kenya

Athletics Kenya and elite athletes have welcomed the new dates for the World Continental Tour and Diamond League but have cautioned that the clogged athletics calendar calls for proper preparations.

Nairobi Athletics Meeting that will now be staged on September 26 is one of the eight legs of the World Continental Tour that have been confirmed for the inaugural edition.

The shortened provisional 2020 Diamond League calendar of events starts on August 10 in Monaco and will end in October.

According to the revised calendar announced yesterday, the World Athletics has whittled down events in the Gold label competition from 11 to just five.

The Nairobi Athletics Meeting that was to open the season on May 2 will now be the last event on the calendar, with Gyulai István Memorial that was planned for July 7 opening the season on August 20 in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.

The first World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting of the year, the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, will be held on 11 August while the Nanjing and Tokyo meetings are being considered for September and October, but these have yet to be finalised.

PRIZE FUND

A total prize money of at least US$ 200,000 (Sh 20 million) will be offered for each Gold meeting.

The Diamond League series that has 11 events, has seen several being cancelled for instance Rabat, London and Zurich as the organisers continue to reschedule events in the athletics calendar following the coronavirus crisis.

Zurich was to stage one of the two finals but that has also been shelve hence neither the finals will be stage nor athletes earn points.

World Athletics postponed the races as the world battled to curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Nairobi Athletics Meeting Race Director Barnaba Korir yesterday welcomed the new date, saying Nairobi will be ready to welcome the world.

Korir said that the Local Organising Committee is considering hosting the event at Nyayo National Stadium instead of the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

“That will depend on whether a new tartan track is laid at the 30,000-seater Nyayo National Stadium. We are talking to the government to see if it can facilitate that,” said Korir.

“Mondo (Italian-based artificial turf flooring company) have been World Athletics associate in laying of artificial running tracks in stadiums and we would like to engage them.”

Korir said that with the new date out, the Local Organising Committee is now able to engage potential sponsors and the government well.

“Potential sponsors were eager to know the new dates. It’s our hope that Covid-19 will have been controlled then, with no threat to participants,” explained Korir.

World 5,000 metres champion Hellen Obiri and former World 1,500m champion Elijah Manang’oi breathed a sigh of relief following the announcement of a new date for the meeting, saying that normalcy should resume in four months.

The athletes voiced their support for the suggestion to have the Continental Tour held at Nyayo National Stadium, describing the arena as ideal.
Manang’oi pointed out that other options should be considered if a large turnout is anticipated.

“There is hope for athletes now and we hope all will go as planned,” said Manang’oi.

Obiri indicated that she will be more than ready to compete at home.

“From the calendar, I should only compete in two events, then switch focus to next year,” said Obiri.

While welcoming the start of the new calendar, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe praised the cooperative effort of the meeting organisers to work with World Athletics so as to put together a substantial competition season for top athletes.

“As we have worked through the challenges posed by the pandemic and the disruption it has caused to our sport, as well as the wider community, our first priority was the health and safety of our athletes,” said Coe.

The World Athletics Continental Tour was formed by World Athletics last year as the second-tier of international one-day meetings after the Diamond League.

The Tour will feature mostly events that have been removed from Diamond League prime time, starting with the inaugural 2020 season. They are 200m, 3,000m steeplechase, discus, hammer and triple jump.

Of the World Athletics Series events that were scheduled for 2020, only the World Half Marathon Championships will go ahead this year, on October 17 in Gdynia, Poland.

The World Indoor Championships will be held in Nanjing, China from March 19-21 next year, but the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, and the World Race Walking Team Championships in Minsk, Belarus are yet to be assigned new dates.