Why 2019 will be busy for sports personalities

Harambee Stars' Francis Kahata, Johana Omondi, Aboud Aboud and Dennis Odhiambo celebrate at Kasarani after after beating Ethiopia 3-0 in their Africa Cup of Nations Cup Group F qualifier on Sunday to move closer to a place in next year’s finals in Cameroon. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

The year 2019 promises to be a busy one for Kenyan sportsmen as various international events are lined up.

Harambee Stars return to the Africa Cup of  Nations in June this year is the major highlight of the sporting calendar in 2019.

This is the first time that Stars are playing in the tournament after 15 years having featured last in 2004 when it was played in Tunisia.

Stars are assured of atleast second place in group ‘F’ after Sierra Leone were disqualified from the qualifiers following Fifa’s ban on the country due to government interference.

The team will  play Ghana in March in the last qualifier match to determine who finishes at the top of the group.

No one gave Stars any chance of qualifying for the tournament after they lost their opening match against Sierra Leone 2-1. But the appointment of Frenchman Sebastian Migne turned around the tide. Victories over Ghana and Ethiopia have assured Stars a place in the tournament once again.

The venue of the tournament is yet to be decided after Cameroon were stripped off the hosting rights.

The country’s under-17 team will however miss out on the April 14-28 Africa Cup of Nations finals to be held in Tanzania after they failed to qualify.

Once again, the national sevens rugby team will have a busy year starting with the Sydney Sevens rugby tournament to be held in Australia from February 1-3.

The team is currently ranked in 14th place after two legs of the series and will need to do better this year to retain their place in the series.

March will be a busy month for the team as they will take part in the  Las Vegas sevens from March 1-3 and the Vancouver Sevens from March 9-10.

This will be followed by the Hong Kong Sevens on April 5 and 7 and the Singapore Sevens on April 13 and 14 . Kenya won the Singapore sevens three years ago.

From May 25-26, the team will fly to London for the London Sevens and end the season in Paris from June 1-2.

Kenya will however miss out on the Rugby World Cup to be held in Japan from September 20 to November 2.

Kenyan athletes will once again go all out to assert their dominance in a busy athletics calendar which starts on March 3 with the Tokyo marathon.

Dickson Chumba won last year’s mens race. The athletics calendar proper starts in May with the first leg of the Diamond league in Shanghai China. There are 14 legs of the league with a prize money of Sh900million on offer.

Apart from the Diamond League, Kenya will also take part in the World Athletics Championships to be held in Qatar in October. Before that there will be the London Marathon, Berlin and Chicago marathons where local athletes are also expected to dominate.

The Kenyan military will also take part in the World Millitary games to be held from October 18-27.  Other major athletics events in 2019 are the New York marathon and IAAF world relays.