World Athletics gives Nairobi U20 event clean bill of health

World Athletics delegation that toured Kenya last week has given the Local Organising Committee (LOC) a clean bill of health as far as preparations for the World Under-20 Championships are concerned.

The 19-man delegation that was in Nairobi from the February 11-13 to inspect the championship venues, hotels, technical suppliers, media and broadcast, as well as the Athletes Village at Kenyatta University, said they are happy with the milestones achieved so far.

“We achieved all our objectives. It was really fantastic and a lot of things have been done. Coming together as a team was really important and we can now look forward to a great event. It’s good that we are all reading from the same page with the event only four months away,” said James Lord, director of broadcasting at World Athletics.

While closing the consultative sessions between the World Athletics team and the LOC, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed assured the visiting delegation that Kenya will be ready to host the World U-20 Championships.

“There should be no cause for alarm on the areas that we seem to be lagging behind. We reworked the Nyayo Stadium in seven days in preparation for the late President Moi’s funeral service and this is  testament to what we are capable of despite limited time,” said Amina.

She added that the steering committee is burning the midnight oil to ensure the country pulls off a successful event.