by Justin LagatJustin Lagat did this piece on Athletics Kenya and its schedule in 2021. Like all national federations, the challenges with Covid 19 makes planning difficult. No one has any idea what will happen in 2021.
Kenyan Trials, photo by Justin Lagat
In anticipation of the major competitions happening next year like the world cross country championships expected to happen in Australia, the world indoor championships, the African Athletics Championships, the world u20 championships, and the Olympic Games; Athletics Kenya seems to have so little time to plan enough races to prepare athletes on time for such a busy 2021.
Besides the world cross country championships in March, there will also be the world indoor championships expected to take place in Nanjing, China.
Understandingly, there is no time to still wait before taking steps to select formidable teams for these major upcoming competitions.
This weekend, Athletics Kenya will be conducting preliminary trials for the U20 athletes in order to identify and nurture potential competitors to represent the country at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi set for July next year.
Nairobi hosted the world U18 championships in 2017 and it was a thrilling experience especially for the Kenyan fans that filled the stadium to its capacity. They witnessed their athletes winning a good number of medals at home and for the same experience to happen next year at the World U20 event, Athletics Kenya is probably working early to get the best team ahead of time.
On the same weekend, the first Athletics Kenya cross country meeting will also be taking place in another part of the country, in Machakos County. The second one will be expected to take place in Nandi County next month before the third and final one in Nyandarua early in January 2021.
By the end of January, all the counties in the country will be expected to have done their team selections before the regional and eventually the national trials take place in February, and a selected national team taken to a national camp to prepare for the world cross country championships.
The African Athletics Championships that were to happen in Algiers in June 2020 were postponed to sometime around May to June in 2021 and the track and field activities are also expected to start earlier than usual next year as well.
Two Athletics Kenya track and field meetings are expected to have happened by the end of March next year.
Due to the situation with the COVID 19 pandemic, no one can be sure of all the planned events within and out of the country to take place as planned, but preparations have to continue regardless of all these.
