Kenya should rotate Olympic Games trials venue for posterity

It is now official — Kenya’s athletics trials for the Rio Olympic Games will be held at Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret from June 30 to July 1. The staging of top level competition in peripheral venues outside Kenya’s capital Nairobi is a welcome development, and helps to promote the attraction of other counties.

Debate has been rife over the venue of the track and field trials despite the insistence by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) that the competition should be held in Eldoret.

Some athletes and those who wanted the trials held elsewhere have lamented that Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County’s headquarters, is ill prepared to host the high calibre of athletes and spectators who will be descending on the town. Some grumbled that the Kipchoge Keino Stadium had not been fully revamped with some facilities still undergoing refurbishment.

Now that that debate is settled — thanks to the insistence of NOC chairman Kipchoge Keino, whom the venue is named after — all roads lead to Eldoret, as Uasin Gishu County prepares to host visitors with open arms.

We must ask the contractors on site to speed up the refurbishment of washrooms and believe that even without a warmup tartan track, the venue will hold historical significance during the trials. The success of hosting major sporting competitions outside the capital city means success for devolution, which means more national events can be held outside Nairobi County. Such gestures will encourage other counties to build more sports facilities.