Uhuru praises Kenyan athletes as he receives Commonwealth Baton

President Uhuru Kenyatta handover the Gold Coast 2018 Queen's Baton Relay to 800M World Champion David Rudisha and 5000m world champion Milka Chemos at KICC, Nairobi on Thursday 06/04/17.PHOTO:BONIFACE OKENDO

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday received the Commonwealth Games Gold Coast 2018 Queen's Relay Baton and assured Kenya will host a successful IAAF World Youth event.

The Commonwealth Games will be held on April 4-15 next year in Gold Coast, Australia.

The five-man delegation led by Commonwealth Games Federation's vice-president Gideon Sam handed the baton to Uhuru, who passed it to 800m world record holder David Rudisha and 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games steeplechase champion Milcah Chemos.

The Queen's Baton arrived from Lagos, Nigeria and will tour 70 Commonwealth countries covering 230,000km over 388 days. While in Kenya's four-day tour, the baton will head to Eldoret and Iten today, before being taken to Karura Forest tomorrow for an event organised by Unicef.

From Kenya, the Queen's Baton will head to Tanzania. Uhuru paid tribute to Kenya's athletes for bringing glory the nation. The President also insisted that Nairobi will host a successful IAAF Youth meeting in July.

"The passing of Baton through Kenya shows the world's confidence in our sportsmanship, our talent and in our promise. It's great pleasure to receive the Baton, which is on its way to Australia.

"As the new circle of competition begins, I urge all athletes to train hard and maintain high level discipline. The government will back you and that's a promise I have made.

"In few months' time, Nairobi will host the IAAF World under 18 athletics Championships. As a country, we are doing everything possible to host a successful event. Sports is a unifying factor."