This archive report was first published on 19 August 2020.
As the world slowly returns to normalcy, athletes in Nyahururu are eager to get back to their tracks. The local stadium, which has been abandoned since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, is in dire need of attention.
Japanese-based athlete Stanley Waithaka Mburu, 20, who has been in Kenya since March, hopes to participate in the Diamond League in 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters races later this year. However, he and his fellow athletes are facing a major challenge - the lack of a suitable training facility.
"We have been utilising the various roads, hilly places and slopes for circuits. We are used to doing speed work here and the slopes only offer short distances that will not serve to sharpen our skills," Waithaka said.
Coach Francis Kamau noted that the need to spruce up the tracks was necessitated by the various world events that the athletes hoped to participate in. "Individual practice on roads reserves and estates by the athletes does not aid in building speed but only builds stamina," Kamau said.
Monica Ngige, a member of the Kenyan women's team to the World Half Marathon, pleaded with the Laikipia County government to financially support the athletes who mainly relied on sports to earn a living. "Most athletes now cannot concentrate on their practice for lack of this stadium and there is need to reopen it," she said.
Collins Kipruto added that training alone was challenging and that tracks helped athletes to build teamwork and runners to gauge themselves speed-wise against their colleagues during training sessions.
It has been over six months since the Sports Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohammed, appointed a committee to draw protocols for the resumption of sporting activities in the country. The committee is yet to give its report.
