Athletics Kenya is working concertedly with the Ministry of Sports to develop strategies to ensure Kenya maintains their World Under-20 Championship at next year's edition in Cali, Colombia.
Kenya topped the medals table in 2018 in Tampere, Finland courtesy of 11 medals (six gold, four silver, and one bronze) before successfully defending their title on home soil this year, where they clinched 16 medals (eight gold, one silver, and seven bronze).
“We want to defend the world under 20 title for the third time now that world under 18 was scrapped. We have started the process to make sure that we have the chance to win again for the three tiles in a row and we have the possibilities," AK director of youth development Barnaba Korir said.
Korir added that part of the strategy is to tap into athletes aged 18 years and below to prepare them in time for the biennial championships.
"We know that more than half of athletes who won medals this year may not be there due to age restrictions but we have gone back to look into the possibilities of young ones who are 18 now so that they are ready because we have less than ten months to go. To do that we must prepare,” said Korir.
The federation is also using the current regional cross country meetings as well as the January 22 national championships in Eldoret to identify upcoming athletes to include them in the trials.
Korir said they will equally pay attention to schools after which they will undertake national trials for the team.
“We will continue with what we have been doing, especially with mobile camps across the country, to give opportunities to athletes in different parts of this country, which have been previously been left behind. We want to get people like Emmanuel Wanyonyi (World under 20 800m champion), Herristone Wanyonyi (world under 20 10,000m race walk champion) among others because the areas they come from have not been exploited,” he said.
Korir added: "You saw what Omanyala (Ferdinand) did and other athletes but we have a problem with lack of facilities for training in 100m, 200m, and 400m. We must have stadiums and facilities for this category of races. We will continue to push the government for completion of stadia.”
Reflecting on the last edition of the World Under 20, Korir expressed his elation at the performance of the youngsters considering the strenuous circumstances under which they achieved the impressive results.
"Surprisingly enough, the results were good. Almost 90 percent of athletes came from the camps that we had established. The results showed that if we spread out the training possibilities, we can reach out to many more athletes from other areas,” he said.
