The 1st Athletics Kenya track and field meet which was scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Maseno University has been cancelled.
Athletics Kenya (AK) Nyanza North chairman Joseph Ochieng announced the cancellation following their failure to secure the venue for the event.
Initially, the event was supposed to be held at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) but was moved to Maseno in Kisumu County after hosts refused to stage the event.
“We sent a letter to JOOUST on January 22 requesting for a venue but they only informed us last Friday of their decision to reject our request. We then settled on Maseno after wide consultations,” noted Ochieng.
Ochieng said the Vice-Chancellor Julius Nyabundi had given them a verbal approval on Monday but on Wednesday, a dean asked for letters of approval from the Ministries of Sports, Health and Education which were not immediately available. “It was not easy to get letters from the ministries at very short notice. After we failed to get them, we received a call from the university cancelling the event,” said Ochieng.
He said following the approval from the VC, they moved to the venue and started rehabilitating the running track which was in a bad shape.
“We hired workers and two rollers. We were ready for the event but it looks like we are victims of possible internal friction,” said Ochieng. " We regret the cancellation and apologise to the athletes who were planning to grace the event," he added.
“We expected a huge field to participate in the event. It is sad we failed to get a venue to host the event,” noted Ochieng who is a World Athletics certified race walking judge.
Ochieng said he is consulting with Athletics Kenya headquarters on the way forward. “I have spoken with AK senior Vice President Paul Muthwii to see if the event can be moved to Nairobi at short notice because most athletes had trained for this weekend’s event. It’s very disappointing,” Ochieng added.
