Spread out sports events

Kenya’s sports focus this week shifts to Mombasa County, hosts of Friday’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya). It will be the first time that the annual ceremony is held outside Nairobi in its 15 years of existence with the Mombasa County government having taken up the tab along with several sponsors, led by long-standing supporters Safaricom.

Hosting the prestigious awards gala outside Nairobi is laudable as it will also help in spreading the spirit of sport across the country. For a long time, Nairobi has been the unrivalled epicentre of sporting events, denying other regions a share of the limelight. That Mombasa residents will now have an opportunity to see, up-close, and rub shoulders with the country’s finest sports stars will go a long way in motivating upcoming sportsmen and women from the area.

Equally, we support the decision by Athletics Kenya to host trials for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Eldoret, the first time the competition will be held outside Nairobi. Other federations should follow suit and decentralise their calendar events.

Similarly, other counties should also rise up and bid to host landmark sports competitions and gatherings to help in the national development of sport, which has hitherto been focused on just a few regions and towns. That will speed up the development of sports infrastructure at the county level and encourage devolved governments to take the sports docket more seriously.

Interestingly, the Soya awards are the brainchild of former world marathon record holder Paul Tergat, whom we commend for the efforts he has made over the years to reward talent. It would be encouraging to see counties, and the national government, follow in Tergat’s footsteps and come up with similar forums to reward top performers so as to build and reward talent.