With a full calendar ahead, runners must take AK meets seriously

What you need to know:

  • The track and field meeting initially planned for Kip Keino Stadium, promises thrills as athletes brace for the long road to the Olympic Games.
  • Kipchoge Keino Stadium is said to be under renovation hence the last-minute change.

With the Tokyo Olympic Games train already in motion, we at Athletics Kenya (AK) roll off the track and field programme this weekend at the University of Eldoret.

The track and field meeting initially planned for Kip Keino Stadium, promises thrills as athletes brace for the long road to the Olympic Games. Kipchoge Keino Stadium is said to be under renovation hence the last-minute change.

There are also changes to the dates. The event was initially set to start on Friday as it has been the tradition but will now take place on Saturday and Sunday.

This particular opening meet will be key for athletes considering the national trials to the 2020 Olympic Games are set for Eldoret. To be precise, this year is special and athletes will have to take all the AK weekend meetings seriously.

The way they have been planned is such that they will serve as a perfect build-up for not only the Olympic trials but also the Summer Games proper.

Athletes who have always looked down upon weekend meetings should think again because besides the Olympics, there is the Continental Tour in Nairobi on May 2 and some of the consistent runners in the weekend meetings could just land an invite.

For the young runners, the weekend meetings will serve as preparations for the World Under-2O Championship in July.

The list is endless with Algiers, Algeria, also hosting the Africa Athletics Championships and the Diamond League meetings starting with Doha just around the corner.

Nothing stops those who made the cut in the cross country team from also taking part in the events ahead of the Africa Cross Country Championships in Lome, Togo.

If these are not reasons enough to compete in the weekend meetings consistently, then I don’t know what will. However, one thing is for sure, success lies in how much one will invest in training before the key events.

Those waiting for last-minute preps will be sorry and my advice to them is: “Wake up from the Slumber”.

However, as we make these efforts to ensure we dominate the athletics scene, I would like to urge the government to play their part in ensuring facilities around the country are in order. I am happy the Nyayo National Stadium is being fast-tracked and I hope this will be extended to other parts of the country.

In this regard I thank the Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and her Principal Secretary Joe Okudo for the efforts in ensuring all is well in our stadia.

The truth is that if we host especially the Continental Tour and the World Under-20 successfully, It will catapult us to even bigger deals.