County gov’ts urged to partner with AK to build athletics camps

County governments have been urged to partner with Athletics Kenya (AK) to build world class athletics camps across the country.

Kennedy Tonui, the Athletics Kenya (AK) Central Rift branch secretary general has said there is need for the partnership to develop such facilities since it will go a long way in taking athletics to the next level.

He said camps were the biggest resource for nurturing athletics talents, training, and development noting that the counties should invest on this besides other development activities.

Briefing journalists in Kericho town, after a workshop on doping and integrity issues for U20 athletes, Tonui observed that it was expensive to build the camps thus the need for the counties to chip in and work closely with AK in order to realize or register progress in the sport.

“There’s need for world class athletics camps across the country for nurturing and training future athletes. So I am appealing to the counties to partner with AK towards this end so that Kenya can produce many track stars who will conquer the world of athletics going forward,” said Tonui.

He said once this is achieved the country’s medal tally during any athletics championships will increase.

Tonui singled out a modern athletics camp in Nandi County which is currently undergoing construction and will be named after Eliud Kipchoge, the four times London Marathon winner as the way to go in developing athletics. He said the county government of Nandi and AK have partnered in this noble project.

Once complete, the camp will train over 200 athletes every year.

A total of over 200 Under-20 athletes benefited from the virtual training. They were drawn from Kericho, Nakuru, Bomet, Narok, Kisii, Kisumu and Nyamira counties.

The athletes were taken through the dangers of doping and general integrity issues in order to produce holistic sports professionals.

The workshops was sponsored by AK and the World Athletics Integrity Unit.