As most sports take a Christmas and New Year break, athletes and sports federations should not lose focus on their objectives as 2020 is going to be one of the busiest.
Athletics Kenya has its plate full, considering the many major events athletes will compete in, the highlight of which will be Tokyo Olympic Games due July 24 to August 9.
After successfully staging the World Under-18 Championships in Athletics in 2017, Kenya is again preparing to host the World U-20 Championships from July 7-12 at Moi International Sorts Complex, Kasarani.
Kenya will also send teams to the Africa Cross Country Championships due March 1 in Lome and the Africa Senior Athletics Championship set for June 24-28 in Algiers.
World Athletics (formerly IAAF) has introduced a World Athletics Continental Tour, a series of one-day meetings outside the Diamond League featuring the world’s top athletes, next year.
The Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA), too, has introduced Africa Athletics Tour, to be held in six cities, including Nairobi on May 2.
The World Athletics Tour will have nine Golden Label events from May to September with a possible 10th leg that Nairobi is bidding to host in May.
The CAA and World Athletics events will act as dry runs for the World U-20 and AK must plan well for them.
The success of these events and the performance of Kenyan athletes will greatly boost the country’s chances of winning the bid to organise the World Athletics Championships in 2025.
Kenya’s best Olympic performance was at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro, where it won 13 medals — six gold, six silver and one bronze — all in athletics competitions.
Other federations must pull up their socks to also post good results in Tokyo.
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