Terrorism hotbed? Top nations withdraw from IAAF U-18 meet

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

It seems like security is such a big deal that the world’s economic super powers are will to drop their participation in the last IAAF World Youth Championship set for Nairobi in July.

The five-day contest, which will be held in Africa for the second time — after Morocco, Marrakech in 2005 - comes just weeks before the August 8 General Election — which is also expected to witness high political voltage.

That notwithstanding, there are widespread fears of terrorist attacks by Al-Shabaab insurgents during that period.

Already, USA, who are the defending champions, have withdrawn from the games citing “critical” security concerns in Kenya. The USA Track and Field (USTAF) announced that they won’t send their team to the contest slated for July 12 to 16 in Nairobi, and will join New Zealand, Britain, Australia, Canada and Switzerland in the growing list of withdrawals.

“As we all are aware, security has become an increasing concern worldwide and in particular for official sporting delegations. As part of a review of all USATF security issues, USATF’s security team has conducted a risk assessment for our delegation for the 2017 IAAF World Youth Championship, also known as the IAAF U-18 Championship.

“The US Department of State gives Kenya a crime and terrorism rating of ‘Critical,’ the highest level possible.

“The State Department’s security summary includes risks for all types of crime, from theft to violent crime and terrorism. Given the “Critical” threat, the high cost associated with our team’s increased security needs, and that the team would be composed of children, USATF will not select or travel a team to this event,” a letter sent to USTAF to youth coaches across America.

Team USA beat Kenya (four gold, five silver and seven bronze) to the overall title in Cali, Colombia in 2015, with a record haul of 19 medals including 11 gold, five silver and five bronze.

The 2015 edition of the event in Cali, Colombia saw Team USA take home a record haul of 19 medals, including gold medals earned by the likes of Sydney McLaughlin and Candace Hill.

For this reason, Kenya will miss the opportunity of gunning for the third overall title in the contests, having won its inaugural championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 1999.

The team would be seeking to reclaim the overall title they won at the previous championship in Brassanone, Italy, in 2009, where they won the bragging rights with 14 medals — six gold, seven silver and one bronze.

Last year, world governing body IAAF President Sebastian Coe announced that the IAAF World Youth Championships would be discontinued after Nairobi 2017. Already Athletics Kenya had announced their intentions to beat six-time winners USA – Debreen, Hungary (2001), Sherbrook, Canada (2003) and Ostrava, Czech Republic (2005) and (2007) Marakech, Morocco and (2011) in Lille, France and Cali (Colombia) in 2015. IAAF will now host world junior (now under-20) while will stage the youth events.

Britain set off the major withdrawals when they announced they had pulled out of the Nairobi 2017 meet in what ignited a protest at the IAAF Council Meeting in Monaco. The affected countries have not announced their withdrawals from the March 26 IAAF Kampala World Cross Country in neighbouring Uganda.