Kenya races against time to host Kip Keino Classic

Nairobi's World Athletics Continental Tour Meeting organisers are racing against time to ensure Nyayo Stadium is ready for the 2025 Kip Keino Classic.

The competition, in its sixth edition, is slated for May 31.

While concerns have been raised about the pace at which most sporting facilities are either being renovated or built in the country, meet director Barnaba Korir is confident the venue will be ready in time for the global showpiece. The race has struggled to have a permanent venue since its first edition in 2020.

Nyayo together with Kasarani Stadium, which has been experiencing endless renovations for the last few years, has been earmarked to stage the 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan) and the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Chan is scheduled for August 2-30 this year.

Last weekend, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) were forced to make a last-minute cancellation of Mashemeji derby between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards due to lack of a suitable stadium to host the biggest football fixture in the country.

But to avoid any embarrassment, Korir, who doubles up as Athletics Kenya (AK) Youth Development chairman, says the contractor has committed to having a 24-hour working shift to ensure the new tartan track is properly installed and certified before the competition.

“So far the renovation progress in the stadium is quite okay, we are now waiting for the glue from Mombasa so that they can lay the tartan this week. We are hoping that the weather will favour us so that we don’t lose more time; the event is closer now and getting tighter. We want to make sure we don’t have any problems because we are really pushing to have a good facility for the event,” Korir told Standard Sports.

“We have discussed with the engineers working at Nyayo Stadium and they have assured us that as long as they have everything in place, they will be working 24 hours. They already have the floodlights which they will be using. If they work 24 hours, I’m sure in two weeks’ time they will have laid the tartan track and then we will start the marking of the track. If it goes well without many rains, I’m confident we will be ready before the meet.”

The experienced administrator believes a successful tournament will put Kenya in a pole position to win the rights to host major athletics events like World Championships and Diamond League.

“Kip Keino is the only Continental Tour meet in Africa and we can’t afford to gamble with its preparations. We will do everything possible to ensure the stature of this competition is maintained,” explained Korir.

“The commitment from Athletics Kenya, technical staff and the support from the government, the public and athletes themselves have made Kip Keino Classic what it is today. Of course we have had some challenges from the first to fifth edition, but I feel we have progressively improved. “

He continued: “AK is hoping that it will be given the possibility of organising World Championships and other upcoming major events like the Diamond League. So, we are pushing for that. But in order for AK to succeed, as a country it requires now the organisational structures to be put in place. We have infrastructures, especially hotels and technical people, but the only thing we are still lacking is standardised stadiums.”

Just like the past events that has had world beaters such as 100m Tokyo Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, 200m Olympic medallist Kenneth Bednarek, Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala and three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, this year’s edition has already attracted Grenada’s Olympic javelin bronze medallist Anderson Peters and Canadian Olympic hammer throw champions Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg, among others.

“We are working very closely with our stakeholders. We have a number of top athletes who have already confirmed to participate in this meet. We are going to release the names in the course of the week when we officially launch the event,” said Korir.