The Nandi cross country championship is set to kick off this Saturday at Kapsabet Showgrounds. This is according to Athletics Kenya (AK) coach Mr. John Kiara who said that the Nandi cross country championship will involve participants from both primary and secondary schools and AK.
He said preparations for the event are ongoing and will be accomplished by Friday this week, revealing that the event is meant to help in the selection of a team which will represent Nandi at the regional level that will be conducted on 28th January at the Eldoret Sports Club in Uasin Gishu County.
The coach further explained that thereafter, the region will have a team that will represent North Rift region at the national level championship to be held at Uhuru Park in Nairobi. “The main challenge here in Nandi facing athletics is the lack of a track field, and this has forced many athletes to conduct their training on normal road paths, which is very cumbersome,” he added.
The coach has called upon the Nandi County leadership to speed up the facelift of Kipchoge Keino stadium in Kapsabet which had stagnated for long during the leadership of the former government under Governor Cleophas Lagat.
The construction of the stadium is in its final stages and is expected to be commissioned in June this year according to the Sports CEC Elly Kurgat. He cited that work on the stadia had delayed due to the poor leadership of the former regime but at the moment the current leadership has set a budget allocation for it and work on the construction site is going on well.
The upgrading and refurbishing of the 30,000 seater stadium has gone on well, with new features including VIP stand and a sanitary facility which will be placed beneath the main stand, a car park, a perimeter wall, changing rooms, effective sewer lines among many other features.
