AK now seeks Sh15m for U20
Athletics Kenya has requested for Sh15 million from the government to help prepare the Under-20 athletes for the August 17-22 extravaganza in Nairobi.
AK director of youth and development Barnaba Korir said a number of meetings have been held with the Ministry of Sports officials all with promising feedback.
“At the moment we are almost finalising the list of the athletes for the specialised training.
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We intend to prepare all the athletes participating in field and track events adequately,” said Korir, adding AK intends to have athletes in all the field events save for pole vault, heptathlon and decathlon.
With the pre-trials at different regions having started, AK is intending to have the athletes training from their respective regions before the global event set for the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
Previously, the government gave Sh64 million to help Team Kenya in preparations for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships that was to take place in July 2020 but later pushed it to this year because of Covid-19.
The preparations started back in 2019 with 20 camps being set up across the country.
Despite the lockdown last year, the government and AK supported the athletes with money and food donations to help them prepare individually.
“The pandemic forced AK to go back to the drawing board and prepare new athletes after more than half of the team surpassed the age limit following the postponement of the event.
So this is majorly a new crop of athletes we are working with,” said Korir. Kenya won the previous edition in 2018 in Tampere, Finland.
