Africa-Press – Kenya. Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed believes Kenya will produce a final team capable of successfully defending the team crown won at the last edition of the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland in 2018.
Amina said she is impressed by the levels of performance at the current national trials for the World Under-20 at the Moi Stadium, Kasarani.
“I must say I am satisfied with the kind of performance I have witnessed today. By tomorrow, I am confident the final team produced will be more than capable of replicating a strong performance at the World Under-20 championships, which we will be hosting. All indicators point to a memorable performance in August,” Mohamed said.
Regarding preparations for the global event, the CS said they are ahead of schedule and Kenya is all set to play hosts to thousands of athletes competing in it.
“As per the countries that have confirmed participation in the event, we believe the World Under-20 will possibly be bigger than the Tokyo Olympics. Successfully hosting this event will help enhance our reputation as a sporting destination and open up more opportunities to host other global competitions in the future,” she said.
Among the issues the Local Organising Committee has been working hard on this past week is discussions on accommodation plans during the five-day event on August 17-22.
“We have had a virtual meeting with hoteliers to identify more hotels that would accommodate our visitors during the event. We are happy with their support and their willingness to work with us to make the competition successful. We will issue a communique in the course of next week to provide the way forward,” she said.
Mohamed was speaking at Moi Stadium, Kasarani on Day 2 of the national trials for the junior athletes with close to 500 competitors battling for the 50 places available on the final team.
In some of the results on Friday, Margaret Gati (Nyanza South) clocked 48:43.9 to win the women’s 10km race walk final ahead of compatriot Salomen Kerubo (55:37.9) and Eastern’s Jacinta Mutheu (57:57.0) in second and third respectively.
In the men’s 10km race walk, Herritone Wanyanyi (North Rift) won in 42:47.5 whereas Keyborn Obato (45:55.5) and Dominic Mwendwa (49:51.4) from Nyanza South and Nairobi finished second and third respectively.
Nairobi’s Zeddy Chesire soared highest in the women’s long jump final, jumping 5.41m to finish first ahead of Martha Nyabuto (Nyanza South) and Winnie Fatuma (South Rift) who jumped 5.10 and 5.05m.
Central’s Dennis Maina jumped 7.21m to win the men’s long jump final ahead of Hillary Kipchirchir (South Rift) and Kyla Osino (Nairobi) who jumped 7.20 and 6.84m respectively.
