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Masterclass in store as African legends battle for top honours
World Masters Athletics president Margit Jugmann speaks during the start of the Africa Masters Athletics Championships at Nyayo National Stadium on November 24, 2021.
What you need to know:
- In the long-term, there is the World Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland in July. I encourage our athletes to compete at the continental level with this in view.
- Regardless of the results, we are all winners by virtue of deciding to participate when it would be rather beneficial to sit back and enjoy our sunset years.
- Once a runner, always a runner it seems and all competitors deserve a pat on the back for daring to do what many would shy away from in their old age.
Form is temporary, class is permanent.”
As the Open Africa Masters Athletics Championships kick off at Nyayo National Stadium, our hope as athletics fans is that this saying will ring home via five-star performances from participants.
The continental event began Wednesday as retired and active athletes congregated in Nairobi to square off for top honours.
For many of the athletes, it will be a trip back in time to relive the old days when they would rule their respective track and field domains.
Three weeks ago, Athletics Kenya held national trials to select the Kenyan team.
Most of them may be retired but from what I saw at Nyayo, many of them have not grown weary for the love of the sport.
It was interesting and encouraging to see athletes giving their best in the race to the finish line despite their grey hair and feeble-looking limbs.
Even better were their wide smiles post-competition as each one recounted how they had enjoyed themselves on the track and field.
These are the kind of scenes that make the Africa Masters Athletics Championships a must-attend for every fan and other stakeholder in the athletics fraternity.
Even as we all congregate at Nyayo to cheer on our heroes and heroines, let us remember to adhere to Covid-19 protocols.
We thank the government for relaxing the restrictions and allowing fans back to stadia because this means that we can all savour the action from different platforms.
Kenya are the defending champions courtesy of their table-topping exploits at the last edition in 2018 in Rades, Tunisia.
Expectedly, the pressure is on us to defend this title and ensure that it does not escape our grasp on home soil.
In the long-term, there is the World Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland in July. I encourage our athletes to compete at the continental level with this in view.
Regardless of the results, we are all winners by virtue of deciding to participate when it would be rather beneficial to sit back and enjoy our sunset years.
Once a runner, always a runner it seems and all competitors deserve a pat on the back for daring to do what many would shy away from in their old age.
