President Uhuru Kenyatta has congratulated winners of the inaugural World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series Kip Keino Classic held today at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi County.
At the same time, the President thanked all participants for taking part in the Nairobi edition of the World Athletics Continental Tour 2020 event adding that Kenya's successful hosting of the global athletics meet was a testament of the country's strong profile as a sporting powerhouse.
"We are excited to have successfully hosted this auspicious international athletics event in Nairobi despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19.
"To all the participants in the track and field events at today's World Athletics Continental Tour 2020, Kip Keino Classic, you are all winners. You are winners because you took the bold step to compete despite the current global health crisis," the President said.
The Head of State, who is away in France on an official visit of the European nation, thanked World Athletics for choosing Nairobi as one of the ten world cities to host the inaugural championship and congratulated the local organising committee for a job well done.
"By choosing Nairobi to be one of the ten host cities of this prestigious championship, World Athletics has once again demonstrated that it is a dependable sporting partner of Kenya," the President said.
"To the local organising committee led by Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and the President of Athletics Kenya Gen (Rtd) Jackson Tuwei and your various teams, congratulations for a job well done," he added.
Nairobi is the only African city selected to host the 2020 edition of the annual one-day event. Other cities are Tokyo (Japan), Nanjing (China), Ostrava (Czech Republic), Hengelo (The Netherlands), Turku (Finland), Kingston (Jamaica), Szekesfehervar (Hungary), Silesia (Poland) and Zagreb (Croatia).
Speaking when he re-opened the refurbished Nyayo National Stadium last week, the President promised to push through the upgrading of several other sporting facilities across the country to international standards.
