August 1, 2018

Summary

Kenyan athletes who are scheduled to participate at the African Senior Athletics Championships, are among hundreds of sportsmen stranded at Lagos airport, allegedly due to Nigeria’s poor schedule of flights to Asaba.

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Team Kenya Part of 300 Athletes Stranded in Lagos

Team Kenya Part of 300 Athletes Stranded in Lagos

Kenyan athletes are among hundreds of sportsmen stranded at Lagos airport, Nigeria.

The athletes, who are scheduled to participate at the African Senior Athletics Championships, have been stranded at the airport for about two days allegedly due to Nigeria’s poor schedule of flights to Asaba, where the event is scheduled to take place from August 1 to 5.

Asaba is approximately 500 kilometres away from Lagos.

Team Kenya was on Monday forced to share limited hotel rooms and beds, with at least three people sharing a bed.

“Everybody is tired now. We are still waiting for the flight,” said Kenya’s head coach Stephen Mwaniki.

Over 60 Kenyan athletes are expected to take part in the championships.

Teams from Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Morocco are also part of the stranded athletes in Lagos.

Nigeria doesn’t have scheduled flights to Asaba Airport so organisers have to charter aircraft to ferry delegations from Lagos.

The competition is scheduled to kick off on Wednesday at 9 am with the decathlon’s 100 metres race where Kenya is represented by policeman Gilbert Koech.

Vincent Rono, Josephat Bett and Kipsang Temoi will also be representing team Kenya in the men’s 800m opening round, slated for Wednesday 8 pm.

This year’s African Senior Athletics Championships edition features athletes from 52 countries. South Africa’s Caster Semenya, is also set to participate in the event. South Africa is the current defending champion of the African Senior Athletics Championships.

Kenya was ranked second overall on the medal chart with 24 medals (eight gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals) against  South Africa’s 33 medals while Nigeria finished third with 16 medals.

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