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Kenya to open youth training camps for 2017 global youth athletics event

Xinhua, October 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenya will open youth development training camps in December to nurture runners who will compete during the 2017 IAAF World Under-18 Athletics Championships if the Local Organising Committee (LOC) disburses funds for the purpose.

Athletics Kenya (AK) Youth Development Committee Chairman, Barnaba Korir, said on Friday that 12 camps will be opened across the country in order to identify talented athletes who will be taken through intensive training before attending the final camp in Nairobi in April ahead of the national trials to select the team for the 10th edition of the games scheduled for July 2017 in Nairobi.

"Plans are complete to set up the camps in 12 regions and we are only waiting for the LOC to release 600,000 U.S. dollars that was budgeted for purpose" Korir told Xinhua.

He said the youth committee has sought the assistance of school head teachers to harness the athletes when schools close so that they can train together.

Korir said the program was initially scheduled to commence during last August school holidays with about 80 athletes per camp, but owing to the time and financial constraints, the number has been whittled to 45 athletes per camp.

The idea to establish the camps was mooted in 2015 in eight training centers , but only materialized into a semi-camp situation last August when 130 athletes attended a junior camp.

He said the regional camps will put special emphasis on sprints distance races and field events, areas where Kenya has not excelled in compared to long and middle distance races.

Korir, who has a long history of nurturing young athletes to stardom, expressed optimism that the project will be Kenya' s turning point in sprints as the country seeks to mold a generation of runners that will do duty at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and beyond.

Kenya will host the global event, which will also be the last, after the IAAF announce it will no longer hold a world championship for the age bracket, arguing it is not the best pathway for young athletes, adding that driving regional competitions might was a better option than staging a global event.

The first U18 event was held in Bydgoszcz, Poland in 1999 whereas the 9th edition was hosted by Cali, Colombia. Endit