World Athletics Council has selected Cali, Colombia, to host the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships.
Cali, Colombia’s Sports Capital, successfully staged the 2015 edition of the World U-18 Championships.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe congratulated Cali for their successful bid and said he was delighted that the global athletics community would return to the South American country in 2022.
“Our World U20 Championships are vibrant and youthful and so it’s entirely fitting that they should be held in a vibrant and youthful city. Cali now has substantial experience hosting major events and I’m sure they will produce a championships with a typical Latin flavour,” said Coe.
He added: “I would hope that hosting the World U20 Championships will inspire a generation of young Colombians and South Americans to follow in their footsteps.”
Meanwhile, Athletics Kenya Nyanza North chairman Joseph Ochieng says the proposed national Under-20 trials scheduled for October may not achieve the intended purposes.
AK intends to do trials next month to select a team to represent Kenya at next year’s World Under 20 championships to be held in Nairobi from August 17 to 22 next year.
Yesterday, Ochieng proposed that athletes should go to camps for intensive training in November and December before trials are held.
“We are all aware that these athletes have not been training since March. We may not select the best team if we go for trials next month,” added Ochieng who is a certified World Athletics race walking judge.
He proposed that national trials be held after the November/December training camps.
“Since schools are closed, we can have the camps start early because the government has already released draft regulations on resumption of sports activities,” he added.
Ochieng further noted that since most athletes have been locked out of next year’s event due to age limits, AK should rethink about next month’s trials.
The WU20 trials were scheduled to be held this year but the event was postponed to next year , locking out several athletes who will be over 20 years next year.
“We have to go back to the drawing board to identify athletes because some athletes will be ineligible to take part in next year’s showpiece,” he added.
Athletics Kenya public relations officer Evans Bosire confirmed that AK is planning to host national trials next month. “We want to identify these athletes early so that they go to camps in December,” Bosire said.
