Elated Kenya eye World Athletic championship hosting
Still basking on the euphoria of their successful hosting of the World Under 20 Athletics Championships, Kenya have declared readiness to host the senior World Athletics Championship.
President of Kenya Athletics Jack Tuwei gave the hint even as he reeled out other categories of the event already hosted by the country
“”In 2007, we hosted the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, 10 years later we successfully hosted the World Under 18 and now World under 20. The question is what next? We are definitely going to bid for the World championships in either 2025 or 2027,” enthused Jack Tuwei.
Kenya according to him is not only ripe to host the championship but has infact flagged off the bidding process for 2025 and 2027 editions.
Tuwei spoke at Kasarani during a press conference on Sunday, accompanied by World Athletics chief executive Jon Ridgeon.
“World Athletics has called for countries interested in hosting the 2025 and 2027 championships to bid. We have started the bidding process already. Kenya is ripe to host the global event.”
If successful, Kenya will be the first country in Africa to stage the biennial event.
World Athletics Chief executive Jon Ridgeon hailed the quality of the championship nothing that it has provided a platform for more athelets to be discovered ahead of the next Olympics in France.
“These championships have not just taken place, they have been highly successful,” Ridgeon said. “We have all been so impressed by the range and depth of talent we have seen from these young athletes.
“The last World U20 Championships (in Tampere in 2018) featured names like Armand Duplantis, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Peruth Chemutai among others, all Olympic champions just three years later. So it’s reasonable to think we’ve seen some of the Paris 2024 champions-to-be in Nairobi.”
“The next four years offer unprecedented opportunities for these future champions to move onto the senior World Championships and Olympic stages. I’m really looking forward to seeing many of these young champions rising through the senior ranks.” he said
read also 2022 world athletics championships set for July 15-24
Nigeria finished third on the medal table with four gold and three bronze medals. Hosts kenya topped the table with 8 gold one Silver and 7 Bronze followed by Finland with four gold and a Silver.