Africa Athletics president happy with Kenya

By James Waindi

South Africa will host the inaugural Africa Cross Country Championships in 2012, the Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) has confirmed.

CAA president Kalkaba Malboum, who is in the country for the 17th Africa Senior Athletics Championships set to start Wednesday at the Nyayo Stadium, made the announcement Monday.

He said this would compensate for the World Cross Country Championship, which has been turned into a biennial event.

Kalkaba added he was satisfied with the country’s preparation ahead of the continental event, and urged Kenya to work towards hosting the World Junior championships and the World Championships in future.

"We have settled for South Africa for the first Africa Cross Country Championships and it will be held next year. We are yet to settle the amount of the prize kitty," Kalkaba said.

"This will be an opportunity for African athletes to compete after the World Cross Country Championships was turned into a biennial event," he said in Nairobi, Monday.

On the 17th edition of the continental event, Kalkaba said the event was special because it had attracted a quality field in the history of the championships. He said it would give the continent a strong team for the Athletics World Cup in Croatia in September.

"The 17th edition of the Africa Senior Athletics Championships is very special because we will use it to select the continent’s team to the World Cup. The field has quality athletes compared to Addis Ababa two years ago, since there are no other major events clashing with it.

"In Ethiopia, many bigwigs missed the competition because they were preparing for the Olympics," said Kalkaba.

He said: "The preparations for the event are good and I would like to congratulate the Local Organising Committee for their good work despite the hardships of hosting an event of this magnitude.