Ethiopian legend Gebrselassie visits Kenya, urges government to uplift sporting infrastructure

Ethiopian track legend Haile Gebreselassie has urged the Kenyan government to pay serious attention to its sporting infrastructure in the country in order to provide athletes with the ideal conditions that will help them to keep delivering on their huge potential.

The 49-year-old, who was in Iten recently on a three-day promotional tour with Adidas to visit athletes and also to work on a prototype racing shoe, called on the responsible bodies to provide funding to construct facilities that he was confident would enhance the performance of athletes on top of promoting sports tourism in the country.

“Please if the government can hear me, just sacrifice a few dollars and construct a good training track and many international athletes will have a reason to come and train and the community will be able to benefit from the earnings.

“Many European athletes would like to come and train in Kenya and Ethiopia but what facilities do you have for them to train? They would like to come for vacation and train at the same time but can we be able to accommodate the athletes in terms of track facilities?” the Ethiopian legend is quoted on Nation.

“I also make a lot of noise in Ethiopia for better facilities and this is because we are losing a lot of revenue,” he added.

The sentiments from the two-time 10000m Olympic champion come even as the North Rift region, known for producing a larger percentage of Kenya’s athletics world beaters, has no single working stadium with facilities like the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret undergoing renovations since 2012.

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Projects like the Kamariny Stadium have also never been completed since 2017 after empty promises leading to Kenya missing out on opportunities to stage major competitions with Nairobi’s Moi International Sports Centre and Nyayo National Stadium the only two viable options.