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Kenya: Athletics - Tusker Leaves Track Fans Thirsty
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The Nation (Nairobi)
26 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Charles Nyende
Nairobi
Athletic Kenya have postponed the IAAF Tusker Permit Meet from May 11 to September. Isaiah Kiplagat, the AK chairman, said the decision was arrived at between organisers and sponsors after athletes expressed reservations with the original date.
"The athletes we want to participate in the meeting are chasing for Olympic qualification times. They want to qualify at sea level," Kiplagat said.
The IAAF permit race was scheduled for Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi, which sits at an altitude of 1,661 metres.
Kiplagat said the athletes preferred to compete at sea level and had shown preference for the Doha Meet on May 9 and the Dakar Meet on May 17.
"We also decided to postpone the competition because athletes are preparing for the Olympics and are nervous. Another meeting will distract their preparations.
"Most top runners want to save their energy for the Olympics. If they run at high altitude they will need a lot of time to recover. We want to spare them that agony," Kiplagat said.
The postponement comes at a time when preparations for the meet were in top gear with the list of invited athletes almost complete and logistics such as accommodation and insurance finalised.
Title sponsors Tusker had even released part of their multimillion shillings sponsorship for this annual event that is geared towards attracting some of the best runners in Africa. The chairman of the organising committee, Joseph Kinyua, said he expected top-notch athletes from around the world to grace the meet. Kinyua also said invitations had been sent out to eminent personalities in the world of athletics to attend the Nairobi meet.
Kiplagat, however, said AK would pursue contracts with leading runners between now and September to ensure the best runners competed in the Tusker event.
Ironically, AK had shifted the dates from September to May to enable them secure the signatures of the top runners early in the season when they were presumably fresh and eager to set pace.
The new September dates are in the month the track and field season concludes, when presumably athletes will be fatigued.
The athletic boss also said issues of payment of athletes who participated in last year's event will be sorted out between Tusker and the organisers, Keino Sports Marketing.
Some reports in the local media indicated that several runners, including world women's 800m champion Janeth Jepkosgei and All Africa Games steeplechase champion Ruth Bosibori, had not been paid their prize money from last year's event.
Kiplagat admitted some athletes had in fact been reluctant to sign up for this year's Nairobi Permit Meet because they had not been paid their money of last year.
"We have agreed with Tusker on how the athletes will be paid.
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"They will all be paid before this year's meet," he said.
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