Nairobi — Athletics Kenya (AK) youth development boss Barnaba Korir is hopeful Kenya will replicate their performance at the 2018 World Under 20 Championships at next week's edition in Cali, Colombia.
On that occasion, Kenya amassed 11 medals - six gold, four silver and one bronze - in Tampere, Finland to top the medal standings ahead of Jamaica and the United States.
The U.S. gave the next edition - held in Nairobi last year - a wide berth due to the Covid-19 pandemic as Kenya defended its crown with a harvest of 15 medals.
Despite the presence of the Americans in Colombia, Korir believes the current crop of juniors can ward off the U.S. threat.
"In Tampere, we topped the medal standings and emerged as champions ahead of the Americans. Granted, they were not present at the last edition. However, I believe these athletes can do what their peers did in Finland even if the Americans will be in Cali, this time around," Korir said.
The team of 28 athletes has been in residential training at Moi Stadium, Kasarani and are expected to depart for Latin America on Friday.
Commenting on the progress of the camp, Korir noted that the athletes have improved immensely under the tutelage of head coach, Robert Ngisirei.
"What we have noted is that the times for the different athletes have improved. It means they have been really working hard. Our hope is that this effort will be translated to a competition setting in Cali. Everything is okay and we are all set to go. Any issues emerging, we assure our athletes that they will be catered to," he said.
At the same time, he spoke about AK's renewed efforts to tap and develop talents in the sprints and field events.
"In the long-distance races, we can see that we are already doing very well. So, it is now time to pay more attention to the sprints and field events. It is beautiful that for the first time we have a field athlete who has qualified for the World Under 20 in long jump," Korir said.
He added: "We have realised that talent development at a young age is the way to go. We would want our sprinters and field athletes to start winning medals and that is why we want to pay more attention to this area. We are also keen to ensure that all the athletes at the junior level can smoothly transition to the senior ranks."
