Margaret Kenyatta Kenya’s first lady during a previous marathon practise
First lady Margaret Kenyatta has accepted to patron Kenya’s bid to host the World Youth Championships desired to be held in Nairobi Kenya 2017, in conjunction with Athletics Kenya.
“The support from our first Lady will greatly boost the chances of Kenya winning the bid as our Bid Committee meeting has already set out the work plan aimed at producing a winning bid document to be presented to the IAAF on 25thSeptember this year,” an optimistic Athletics Kenya boss Isaiah Kiplagat said and added that the final presentation of the bid will be done on 19th November 2014 at the IAAF Headquarters in Monaco.
The bidding process started in March2014 when Athletics Kenya submitted to IAAF a letter of intent to host the Championships in Kenya’s capital city.
IAAF accepted Kenya’s letter of intent together with USA and Argentina, though Argentina later withdrew leaving Kenya to battle it out with the Americans.
Athletics Kenya (AK) chairman Isaiah Kiplagat
“Kenya is optimistic in its bid for this event because of its success in the world of athletics. We also would like to note that Kenya as a nation stands to gain a lot by winning this bid which will bring the whole world into Nairobi. We expect to host over 150 countries with over1,500 athletes taking part in the Championship.” The Athletics Kenya president said.
The Kenyan government has already issued AK with the letter supporting the bid which was presented to the IAAF council in Dakar Senegal, Page 2 of 2 in April 2014. Following suit was also the office of the Governor of Nairobi City County which also wrote in support of the bid.
The poor conditions of the old Nyayo Stadium running tracks
Kenya successfully hosted the World Cross Country Championship, Mombasa 2007 and the Africa Athletics Championship in 2010 hence the great belief that the nation has the necessary expertise and infrastructure to host another world event, but the optimistic Kiplagat thought otherwise when he said, “We need to refurbish Nyayo stadium which we intend to use during the games. We also don’t have a warm up track and are in the process of negotiating with the two colleges nearby, the prisons school and ministry of transport, but their tracks must be carpeted first for use by the athletes to warm up during the event.”
The Bid committee for this event has already been formed and it comprises of members from different sectors both corporate and from the government who has been working closely with the Ministry of Sports Culture and the Arts.
Author: Shadrack Andenga Odinga