Kenya prepares to host World Athletics championships
Having successfully hosted three World Athletics events, Kenya will be hoping she stands a real chance of staging the 2025 World Championships.
Kenya officially put in its bid to host the 2025 World Championship in October, having hosted the 2007 World Cross Country Championships, the 2017 World Athletics Under-18 Championships and the 2021 World Athletics Under-20 Championships, and two Continental Tour (Kip Keino Classic) meetings.
Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa have also shown interest in hosting the event that might be held for the first time on African soil.
Tokyo, too, placed its bid. The World Championships is the largest athletics extravaganza after the Olympics.
The country that will win the bid for the 2025 event will have to invest between Sh7 billion and Sh8 billion.
Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei disclosed that good infrastructure that includes proper transport systems and top training venues are some of the key factors that the World Athletics Council will explore before awarding the rights.
The ongoing construction of the Nairobi Expressway and the Jamhuri Sports Complex are some of the key factors Kenya has used in her effort to win the bid to host the 2025 championships.
“Traffic in Nairobi has always been a major concern but the completion of the Nairobi Expressway from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport through to Waiyaki Way will be key to our bid,” said Tuwei
Lessons learnt
Tuwei noted that besides the main arena of the event, the bidding countries are required to have more than two venues with international standard track for athletes to train.
Tuwei said that besides the Nyayo National Stadium, the completion of the Jamhuri Park Sports Complex on Ngong Road and the Kirigiti Stadium, Kiambu County is crucial for their bid.
“We want them built to the required international standards that include the modern tartan track with eight lanes,” said Tuwei.
“These training venues or warm up tracks are needed closer to the main competition arena and the three are within the radius required.”
Tuwei said the six-lane track at Kenyatta University that is part of the World Under-18 and Under-20 legacy, has also been factored, adding that the track at Kasarani will be overhauled if necessary.
The track was laid in 2017 and given a life span of between seven to 10 years.
Tuwei said that he is grateful to the government for successfully facilitating the staging of the World Athletics Under-18 Championships in 2017 and the World Under-20 Championships this year.
“With lessons learnt from these two world events, Kenya has built the capacity and is confident and ready to host the next event,” explained Tuwei after completing the second phase of the process by presenting the bid.
Tuwei said the event has never been to Africa hence time is ripe for the continent to have a share of the top athletics celebrations right in Nairobi.
