Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
William Njuguna
8 December 2011
Kenya is keen to host the World Youth championships in 2018, Athletics Kenya (AK) chairman Isaiah Kiplagat announced yesterday. Kiplagat said after successfully hosting the Africa Senior athletic Championship last year, he believes they have what it takes to host the World Junior Championships in 2018. “As a federation, we can host the world event in 2018 because the events between now 2011 and 2017 have been given out. We will wait to see whether we can bid for the 2018 junior show,” he added.
He said the process of bidding for the event will be in consultation with government. “First, we want the Ministry of Sports to finish its report on the All Africa Games before we can sit down and plan on how to bid for the event in 2018,” he added. Kiplagat said there is adequate time to prepare for the event before bidding. “We have seven years to increase the capacity and improve our stadia facilities so that by the time we host the event, we are fully ready,” noted Kiplagat.
The AK boss observed that Kenya’s main worry will be the bed capacity for the hotels to host the athletes and officials for the event. “We have very few world class hotels in the city and I doubt they can cope with 5,000 athletes and officials for the event. This is an area we have to work on between now and the time of the event,” noted Kiplagat.
He made the remarks during the hand over of the equipment used during the African championships to the Sports Stadia Management personnel at Nyayo Stadium. Kiplagat asked the parastatal to ensure they train the personnel on use of the equipment and safe storage.
Kiplagat asked the body to employ a competent store manager to ensure the equipment is in good shape. “We don’t want a repeat of the fourth All African Games in 1987, where equipment disappeared and some of it went to waste. I want the board to ensure we have someone competent for the job of the equipment. It costs millions of shillings and we must keep in it good shape,” he noted
Kiplagat asked Minister of Sports Paul Otuoma to ensure the equipment for the stadia and especially athletics is updated after every three years. “Technology changes and in three years, the equipment may be obsolete and so I want to ask the ministry to ensure our equipment is up to-date,” he noted.
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