502 juniors to compete at World Under-20 trials

Some 502 junior athletes will congregate at the Nyayo Stadium on Friday for a two-day pre-trial event for the World Under-20 Championships.

The national event will be used by Athletics Kenya (AK) to gauge athlete’s preparedness ahead of the postponed global event that is slated for Nairobi in August 17 to 22 next year.

The two-day event will involve athletes from all the regions who have been invited on the basis of quota allocations.

According to the AK Youth Sub-Committee secretary Barnaba Kitilit, they are looking towards identifying probable athletes ahead of the main trials to select the national team which is planned for May next year.

“The event is meant to bring athletes together to compete and showcase their talents so that we can see our future champions as we look forward to the main trials set for April or May. We will have 502 athletes and ours is to compare their results in terms of time and their potential so that we can work on them,” said Kitilit.

Kitilit explained that athletes will compete in all events apart from the Pole Vault.

The World Under-20 event was initially earmarked for this year before it was delayed by a year due to coronavirus.

At the same time, Kitilit who doubles as the chairman of AK Baringo County decried the postponement of the event which has seen some of the probable athletes locked out due to the age limit.

However, he exuded confidence Kenya will still roar despite the setback.

“Actually, very many of our athletes have been locked out and as at now we do not have any athlete who has ever represented the country before in any international championships. Therefore, we are looking forward to completely new faces in the team next year,” he said.

The federation will afterwards set up specialised training camps for the best performing athletes with Nairobi set to host a camp for the sprints and field events.