World Athletics confirms new date for Nairobi Continental Tour
What you need to know:
- The tour, initially set for May 2, was postponed as most countries were fighting to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nairobi Athletics Meeting, one of the legs in the inaugural 2020 World Athletics Continental Tour, will be staged on September 26, World Athletics (WA) has announced.
According to the revised calendar announced on Tuesday, WA has whittled down the 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.
Kamila Skolimowska Memorial that was planned for September 6 in Chorzow, Silesia, Poland remain the same with Ostrava Golden Spike that was due May 22 in Ostrava, Czech coming on September 8 at the same venue.
Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica that had been planned for September 6 in Zagred, Croatia will now be staged on September 15 at the same venue.
The World Athletics that postponed the race as the world battles to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, will make the announcement in their rescheduled calendar for the last quarter of the 2020.
Nairobi’s race director Barnaba Korir welcomed the new date saying Nairobi will be ready to welcome the world.
Korir said they have been having fortnight virtual meetings with Continentals Tour director, Pierce O’Callaghan and directors from nine others events and they are excited and committed to the success of the tour.
Korir said the Local Organising Committee has also been meeting weekly to plan for the Nairobi race, having also received support also from Athletics Kenya and the Ministry of Sports that has already seconded people to the committee.
“Potential sponsors were eager to know the new dates. It’s our hope that Covid-19 will have been controlled with no threats to participants,” explained Korir, noting that top athletes from Uganda and Ethiopia have inquired about the event.
Among the Gold label events that have been cancelled are Tokyo Seiko Golden Grand Prix (May 10) Japan and Nanjing Continental Tour Meeting (May 13), China.
The 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 from the inaugural 2020 season. They are 200m, 3000m steeplechase, discus, hammer and triple jump.
The Continental Tour will be divided into three levels – Gold, Silver and Bronze – whose status will be determined by the quality of competition and prize money on offer.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has praised the cooperative efforts of the meeting organisers to work with World Athletics to put together a substantial competition season for the sport’s 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. And the next priority has been to find a way to get our professional athletes back into international competition this year as their incomes rely on this.
“I’m delighted that it now looks like we will be able to offer them a solid international season between August and October where they can earn prize money and assess their training progress in preparation for next year’s Olympic Games, although we know this will not be easy for everyone.
“Inevitably international travel restrictions will affect the ability of some athletes to attend some meetings, but we hope that there will be a wide enough range of meetings available for most elite athletes to access some competition before the end of the year.”
Of the World Athletics Series events that were scheduled for 2020, only the World Half Marathon Championships will go ahead this year, on 17 October in Gdynia, Poland.
The World Indoor Championships will be held in Nanjing, 19-21 March, 2021, but the World U-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, and the World Race Walking Team Championships in Minsk, Belarus are still being rescheduled.
2020 international competition calendar:
August
11 Turku – Continental Tour Gold
14 Monaco – Wanda Diamond League
16 Gateshead – Wanda Diamond League
20 Szekesfehervar – Continental Tour Gold
23 Stockholm – Wanda Diamond League
September
2 Lausanne – Wanda Diamond League
4 Brussels – Wanda Diamond League
6 Paris (tbc) – Wanda Diamond League
6 Silesia – Continental Tour Gold
8 Ostrava – Continental Tour Gold
15 Zagreb – Continental Tour Gold
17 Rome/Naples – Wanda Diamond League
19 Shanghai – Wanda Diamond League
26 Nairobi – Continental Tour Gold
October
4 Eugene – Wanda Diamond League
9 Doha – Wanda Diamond League
17 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships
17 China (venue tba) – Wanda Diamond League
Note: dates for the Continental Tour Gold meetings in Tokyo and Nanjing are still to be finalised.
A number of marathons and road races have also been rescheduled from earlier this year to later in the year which will provide the road running community with a range of competition opportunities.
