NAIROBI, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — Athletics Kenya (AK) will on Saturday host a test run to experiment with the country’s level of preparedness ahead of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series in Nairobi on Oct. 3.
The athletics body has invited 54 athletes to take part in five events which will be watched by President Uhuru Kenyatta who will be launching the newly refurbished Nyayo National Stadium.
The AK senior vice president in-charge of competitions, Paul Mutwii, confirmed on Friday that the test events will involve the 200m, 400m and 800m, both men and women, and 4X400m mixed relay races to enable the organizers to try out the electronic gadgets that will be used during the next weekend’s one-day event, dubbed Kip Keino Classic.
“Because the Kenyan President Uhuru will come to tour the stadium and launch it on Saturday ahead of the World Athletics Continental Tour we thought we can use the opportunity to have the races and give him an opportunity to watch them, that’s why we listed 54 athletes to take part in the event,” said Mutwii.
“The event will also give us an opportunity to try out electronic timing machines considering that some of the gadgets were sent to Brussels for calibration and are now back. We need to see if they are in order and not faulty,” Mutwii said.