Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenyan athletes in the World Under 20 Championship have been encouraged to go out and enjoy themselves on the track and field while drawing valuable lessons from the event.
Athletics Kenya’s director of youth development, Barnaba Korir, advised the juniors not to be too fixated with claiming podium finishes but to focus on picking the positives from the August 17-22 championship.
“I want to encourage you to approach the Games as part of entertainment, it is not a matter of life and death. The essence is to have fun because this is part of your development process. Sports is a vehicle for teaching, the winning and losing, outcomes are completely secondary to the teaching of valuable life lessons,” Korir said.
He asked the 45 athletes not to be discouraged by any poor results from the championship but to work towards developing their careers to the highest level by using the event as a launchpad.
“We are hosting the Championships that they can help you know how to handle adversity and failure, mastering fear and obstacles while learning to believe in yourself,” Korir, who doubles up as LOC member for the World Under 20 Championships, said.
He was speaking on Sunday when he presided over over the distribution of Nike-branded kits to Team Kenya athletes at their pre-championship bubble training camp at Sports View Hotel in Nairobi.
The kit contains competition uniforms, training kits and ceremony wear whereas the spikes are set to arrive on Tuesday.
Korir was accompanied by David Karuri, the Deputy Director, Medical for the junior Championships, who urged the juniors to continue adhering to the prescribed Covid-19 prevention guidelines.
“Our primary role is to ensure there are strict Covid safety rules in place before, during and after the championship. It will be our role to limit what competitors, officials and other essential persons can do and where they can go, and athletes and others are being tested daily or after every 48 hours. On August 12th we will undertake the crucial tests at Ole Sereni Hotel. Only Covid negative athletes will proceed to camp,” Karuri said.
Meanwhile, Kamar Etyang will replace Emmanuel Lemama in the men’s 1,500m after the latter suffered an injury.
“Lemama requested to be replaced after sustaining an injury. We assessed the situation and therefore saw it fit to replace him with Etyang who was unlucky not to represent Kenya at the Tokyo Games,”Korir announced.
Lemama finished second in the national trials for the under 20 championship whereas Etyang missed out on the Tokyo Olympics after failing to meet anti-doping test requirements.
