Athletics Kenya releases season calendar

Athletics Kenya (AK) has released its calendar for the 2020/2021 season which also includes the World Under-20 Championships pre-trial and Mountain Running competition, set for this weekend.

The calendar will kick off proper on November 28 when Machakos County will host the first leg of the AK Cross Country Series.

However, the federation has cut down the Series from five to three to cope with the 2021 busy calendar in athletics. The subsequent two meets will be held in Nandi, December 19 and Nyandarua January 9.

Kisii will then play host to National Cross Country Championships cum trials on February 20, 2021 where a team will be picked for the World Cross Country Championships scheduled for Australia in March.

AK senior vice-president Paul Mutwii is upbeat Kenyan athletes will beat the coronavirus blues and perform excellently in the coming season especially at the international scene.

“This season will start slightly late due to coronavirus which has disrupted our plans but we’re optimistic our athletes will post a good show in the busy 2021. We’ve stayed in the cold for over 10 months but we hope 2021 our athletes will compete,” said Mutwii.

After the Cross Country Series, all counties will then hold their respective cross countries on January 23 before the Regional Cross Country Championships take place on February 5. Subsequently, Nairobi will be the first stop for the Relay Weekend Meets on February 13.

Meanwhile, AK will separately hold a three day anti-doping conference from December 2 to December 5 in Nairobi in a bid to help fight doping following a number of high profile doping cases which has hit the country.