The Local Organising Committee for the Senior Africa Athletics Championship has, for the second time, been forced to extend the deadline of shipping in the equipment needed to successfully stage the event in Nairobi.
The expiry of the deadlines set earlier – on March 30 and April 30 – will however not slow down the momentum on the organisation, according to the LOC’s chief executive officer, David Okeyo.
Already, LOC has received confirmation entries from 40 countries for the event, with the remaining 14 still having 24 hours to beat today’s deadline.
“We have no worry at all. If you look at the number of countries who have shown interest, then it confirms that all the bigwigs are in the pot. We are still waiting for a few – like Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, Niger – and I am sure they will be here before the deadline,” he said.
Okeyo also confirmed that an additional 10 countries have made telephone calls to show their commitment, which they will follow up with a written pledge to secure their place in the July 28-August 1 championship.
Leaving window open
“That leaves us with only about four countries yet to make their pledge. We are leaving the window open until midnight on April 30 [today] and I hope by then we will have a full house,” he said.
Top athletes from Ethiopia, Morocco, South Africa, Eritrea, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and hosts Kenya have promised to send in their best athletes and the race is on to secure the required qualification times.
“I cannot confirm the individual names involved but you can be assured that we will host Africa’s best talent, and this will go down as one of the best championships,” he said.
LOC has set July 13 as the deadline for teams to submit their official final selection to be entered in the championship. Until, then, LOC will be more than happy to plan and work with tentative entry lists.
“It is after July that we will be strict on the final selections. These preliminary entry lists are important to help us in the planning.”
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