Siaya County is set to host a star-studded meet this Easter Friday Eve as top Kenyan athletes – including Ferdinand Omanyala’s wife Levante Amutavi (100m) and World 5,000m champion Viola Cheruiyot – headline the Betika Bingwafest national athletics finals at the newly built Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Stadium in Siaya County.

Speaking to People Sports yesterday, Betika Athletics Lead Harun Kibet Biwott disclosed that other elite athletes who will feature at the newly built Jaramogi Oginga Odinga (JOO) Stadium include Kenyan runners Boniface Mweresa and Zablon Ekwam, both of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) athletics team. They competed in the 400m race during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, with Mweresa also running in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

“The athletics championship at the 20,000-seater capacity JOO Stadium in Siaya County will be star-studded. Other top Kenyan athletes who qualified to represent their regions at the competition are 800m elite runners Timothy Cheruiyot and Reynolds Cheruiyot. Kenyan Olympic 800m gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi will miss out, as he did not register in time to participate in the Nairobi regional Bingwafest athletics championship,” Biwott said.

Biwott continued, “Other elite athletes who will represent their regions and compete at the Betika Bingwafest national athletics championship include women’s 10,000m runners Vivian Cheruiyot, Maureen Chepkoech, and 100m athlete Monica Safania of the Kenya Police Athletics Women’s Team, along with Isaac Omurwa Kundu from a local university athletics team.”

Betika Athletics Lead Biwott, who attended last week’s National Bingwafest Athletics Championship Local Organising Committee (LOC) meeting in Kisumu, said the competition scheduled for Siaya County on April 17 will be intense and electrifying, as elite athletes will be competing for honours and lucrative cash prizes totalling Ksh 12 million, with the 10,000m race being the most well-prized.