With exactly 98 days remaining on the calendar to the Kickoff of the World Athletics U20 Championships meant to be conducted at the Moi International Stadium Kasarani, young athletes across the world have heightened their training sessions as they focus on bringing out their A game in the global showpiece.
The local event organisers and the Kenyan government at large have demonstrated its readiness in their preparation of the five day event held at Kasarani in Kenya's capital.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) is very keen to learn from other countries on how to carry out a successful international event in the Covid 19 period.
The LOC Chief Executive Mike Rabar revealed that the local organising committee of the event is very much keen to host a memorable event devoid of adverse incidents resulting from the coronavirus.
He said the organisers are racing against time to ensure everything is in place for the main event in Kasarani.
The local organising committee boss revealed that the board has been sending out representatives to various international sporting events to benchmark and monitor how the event is conducted and reflect it on the organising of the world championship U20.
The LOC sent a team to the World Relay Championship that was held in Poland to conduct a survey and learn more on the organisation of the event held in the middle of a global pandemic.
"Their visit to Silesia was a major boost of confidence for us and World Athletics. They were there a few days earlier (than Team Kenya) as part of an observer program to understand the different protocols required to deal with athletes, technical officials, and fans. They went through the process to set up Covid-19 centres and the bubble programs. These lessons have been shared with the different directorates under the organizing committee," the LOC boss narrated.
With focus having shifted to the global athletics show at Kasarani the benchmarking was a necessary move by the LOC which was even in the larger scheme of the organising Committee.
Rabar narrated that they have plans of benchmarking and learning from the WRC Safari Rally that would be held next month in Naivasha and believes that the world rally event will aid in preparation of their U20 World Championship in August.
He admitted that the local organisers have an uphill task especially when it comes to conducting sports events with no fans at the stadium. The organising team is having discussions with the Ministry of Health to have a significant number of fans allowed at the World Championship action in Kasarani under strict Covid 19 protocols.