Komen and Wakiihuri urge counties to build proper sports facilities

From left- 1500M Men Festus Lagat, Reynold Cheruiyot, Abel Kipsang, Brian Komen and Timothy Cheruiyot during the World Athletics Championships, Tokyo 2025. [File, Standard]

Athletics legends have asked county governments to have proper sport facilities to help nurture talent.

The legends said that ease of access to the few facilities in the counties and the country has been made it very difficult even as the same places have not been made to accommodate different sports disciplines.

Former world 3000m record holder Daniel Komen said that if the the counties can invest in stadiums to help nurture talents and train then Kenya will continue produce the best.

"We can produce the best athletes if we can have good places to train especially a place where we can train upcoming athletes," Komen said.

Komen added that the other way of having Kenya on the top of sports in the world is to scout for talent in primary schools and villages.

"If we can have a programmes where retired athletes can move from school to school scouting for talent and later train them during holidays then in the near future no country would beat us especially if there can be consistency," Komen said.

Retired marathoner Douglas Wakiihuri echoed Komen's sentiments saying that the country lacks proper facilities to nurture talent.

"We have several stadiums in this country including Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu but the stadium is not conducive for runners, it has tarmac and no lines or markings, we need a stadium with a tartan track for us to run, in short we have few facilities, but they are not ready for use," Wakiihuri said.

The two were speaking at the Windsor Golf and Country Club in Kiambu County during the Windsor mini marathon on Saturday.

Wakiihuri said sponsors like Windsor have tried to support the runners including youngsters by allowing them to train in their grounds.