New tartan track to be laid at Nyayo Stadium
Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi in this picture taken on February 27, 2025 during an exclusive visit by a Nation Media Group team.
The national trials for the World Athletics Relay Championships scheduled for Saturday will be the last event to be staged at the Nyayo National Stadium before the venue gets a new tartan running track.
Athletics Kenya (AK) director in charge of development, Barnaba Korir, said on Wednesday that work of laying a new track was supposed to start this week but they requested the government to allow the trials to first be held.
He said that Mondo, a Spanish company that specializes in laying of running tracks, will handle the job at the 22,000-seater stadium.
The last time a new running track was laid at the venue was in 2017 just before the country hosted the World Athletics Under-18 Championships that year, replacing the aging, synthetic track laid in 2010 for the African Athletics Championships.
Nyayo stadium was used as one of the training grounds for teams participating at the 2017 world youth event that was staged at the Moi International Sports Centre (MISC), Kasarani.
That is the time Moi International Sports Centre also received a new Mondo synthetic track at an estimated cost of Sh360million, replacing the old track that athletes raced on during the 1987 African Games.
Interestingly, the new tracks both at the MISC and Nyayo National Stadium were laid on top of the old tracks.
Nyayo National Stadium and MISC are undergoing renovations ahead of the delayed 2024 African Nations Championships (Chan) that was postponed from February this year to August 2 to 28.
Korir said that the new track at Nyayo will be ready to host this year’s World Athletics Gold Tour Kip Keino Classic on May 31.
“We want to thank the government for fast-tracking the process and all is for the benefit of sports,” said Korir during the briefing ahead of the world relay trials.
Korir was accompanied by AK director of competitions and technical, Paul Mutwii and treasurer David Miano.
The 2025 World Athletics Relays Championships will be held on May 10 to 11 at the Guangdong Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou, China.
Mutwii said that some of the country’s top sprinters Ferdinand Omanyala, Mark Otieno and Zablon Ekwam will miss the trials but will be considered for selection.
Omanyala, the Commonwealth Games 100m champion, Otieno and Ekwam will compete in the Botswana Golden Grand Prix on Saturday at the National Stadium.
Kenya have only qualified to field teams in 4x100m men, 4x400m men and women and 4x400m mixed relay.
“Those going for Botswana must return good times to warrant selection in the team,” said Mutwii. He said trials will be only open to invited athletes.
The events on the cards are 100m and 400m but will be spiced up by races in 110m hurdles (men), 100m hurdles (women), 400m hurdles (men and women), steeplechase (men and women), high jump (men and women) and long jump (men and women).
Six athletes will be selected in men's 100m with the first four across the line getting automatic slots in the team. The next two will be determined by a panel of selectors.