Kip Keino Classic, the second leg of the World Athletics Continental Tour, has been pushed back by nine days.
The event will now take place on October 3, and not September 24, in Nairobi, Kenya.
The one-day extravaganza was deferred following the request by both local and international athletes, according to Barnabas Korir, the race director.
The Kenyan leg would have fallen just a day before the Doha Diamond League.
Had the event been allowed to go on as initially planned, it would have made it almost impossible for those athletes who would want to compete in both races to do so owing to the travel logistics.
“We want the event to be successful and the most vital ingredient here are the athletes,” Korir said.
The World Continental Tour, a second tier competition created from the Diamond League, kicked off with the Paavo Nurmi Games on Tuesday in Turku, Finland.
The Tour that was established last year by the World Athletics will feature races from 200m, 3000m SC, 5,000m, 10,000m, discus, hammer and triple jump events that were scrapped off from the Diamond Leagues roster.
The 10 events that constitute the Continental Tour are divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze.
The status of each category, according to World Athletics, will be determined by the quality of competition and prize money
The Nairobi’s leg will be held at the yet to be completed Nyayo National Stadium that is still under renovation.
The event was named after Kenya’s athletics legend Kipchoge Keino.
The longest distance of the one-day championship will be called Naftali Temu 10,000m Classic.
Just like Kipchoge, Temu was part of the first Kenyan trio that also includes Amos Biwott (3,000m, steeplechase) to win the country her maiden Olympic gold during the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico.
Kipchoge won his first of the two Olympic gold in the 1500m before completing a double in Munich (1972) while Temu brought Kenya’s first ever gold in the 10,000m men’s race 52 years ago, at the Mexico Games.
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