The small crowd that showed up to witness the opening ceremony of the IAAF World Under-18 Athletics Championships at Nairobi’s Kasarani Stadium was indicative of our indifference to track and field competitions.
Although sports enthusiasts will spend thousands of shillings at a session watching a live television screening of an English Premier League match; or spend an entire night screaming themselves hoarse over the action of a Formula One race halfway across the world, a vast majority couldn’t be bothered to show up for the opening ceremony in Nairobi and pay the Sh200 entry fee.
If ever there was a time an overzealous manager was needed to release staff to go watch the opening ceremony of the IAAF event at Kasarani, it was last Wednesday. Even the pupils who were released by their schools to cheer the Kenya team could barely fill a small section of the 60,000-seater stadium. And yet we are considered a world athletics powerhouse.
Now our apathy for things athletics will be beamed live across the world to millions of homes in the 159 countries where the 3,000 visiting athletes live. We still have today and tomorrow to redeem ourselves. We must show up at the stadium in large numbers to cheer on our sports heroes when they are competing on home soil. These gallant athletes deserve our support.
