World U20: Athletics Championship receives Ksh.66M sponsorship

With four days to the World Athletics U20 Championships set for Nairobi, Safaricom has pumped in Ksh66.5 million alongside other incentives for the five-day event.

Aside from the cash injection, the telco giant will cater for internet during the entire event including connectivity at the fully kitted media centre and media tribune. 

The internet access will also extend to the score recorders’ office, event management office as well as Nyayo National stadium which is reserved as the training grounds, Covid-19 testing and accreditation centre for all the athletes.

A number of budding Kenyan athletes are looking to fly the Kenyan flag high and capitalize on home advantage to mine medals building on the successful World Under 18 event back in 2017.

In the event Kenya finished 4th overall and 2nd in Africa after winning 15 medals including 4 gold medals.

Speaking after inking the sponsorship deal, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa hoped that the young athletes will borrow a leaf from the athletes who did Kenya proud at the Olympics.

"We are thrilled to be supporting this unique event which brings together over 1,000 young competitors from around the world and we hope that the Kenyan participants will draw inspiration from the athletes who represented the country at the Olympics. 

“We look forward to an exciting championship and cannot wait to cheer on the upcoming stars as they go beyond and represent their respective nations,” said Ndegwa. 

The Championship will draw over 1,000 athletes from across the globe who will be aiming for a podium finish at the track and field events with the event pushed to this year after Covid-19 led to the postponement back in 2020.

Kenya is the defending World Under 20 champions having topped the medal standing in Tampere, Finland in the last edition in 2018.