Athletics Kenya joins fight against air pollution

Athletics Kenya have joined UNEP and WHO in the fight against air pollution, President Lieutenant General (Rtd) Jackson Tuwei has confirmed.

Tuwei acknowledged that the athletics body has already drawn a strategy to address pollution and climate change with a special focus on how climate change and air pollution have affected the sporting environment.

AK is working in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has come up with the Sports for Climate Action Framework as the strategy to address sporting activities and climate effects.

Tuwei drew examples from the weather conditions experienced during the 2021 Olympics Games in Tokyo, prompting the change of time for the start of some races.“Over the last few decades, the athletics world has been experiencing side effects of global warming which in turn is affecting the weather patterns in different parts of the country as well as the world. The increasing hot temperatures affect the sport because athletes biologically perform optimally within a certain environment. If there is a rise in temperatures, it can only mean, either to postpone until the right temperatures recommended for a given sport is realised or to move it to another location. Any above decisions will mean re-strategising, and if that were to be done every time there was a world sporting event, then you can read where the mark is going about sports budgets in future” Tuwei is quoted by the Daily Nation.

The president drew examples from the 2021 Olympics Games in Tokyo which was hit by the adverse weather conditions, prompting the postponement of start time for the marathon.

“Some of you who followed the 2021 Olympics Games in Tokyo may recall that even as we celebrated the endurance and resilience of our athletes Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei, who dominated the women’s marathon and brought glory and honour to Kenya by bagging gold and silver medals, they had to endure unusually high temperatures in Sapporo that even forced the organizers to change the start time of the race. Other adverse weather conditions were witnessed during the World Championships in 2019 and Beijing Olympics in 2008,” Tuwei said.

Earlier this month, Football Kenya Federation Premier League club Nairobi City Stars put an end to the use of plastic water bottles, a move the club said is geared towards promoting environmental conservancy.

The Kawangware-based side Chairman Jonathan Jackson distributed steel bottles to the playing unit as well as the technical bench and other staff for use during training.

The move is aimed at ensuring that the environment is not littered with plastic and that everyone within the club will have to walk around with a reusable bottle.