BY SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
INTERNATIONAL Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council member, Isaiah Kiplagat is this morning expected to launch the Kids Athletics Zambia programme at which First Lady Christine Kasebe will be guest of honour.
Kiplagat, who is also Athletics Kenya Chairperson, is representing IAAF president Lamine Diack, who has failed to make the trip to Lusaka.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Kiplagat said he was excited to see Zambia fast become one of the leaders of IAAF latest programme to woo children to the sport.
“Actually Zambia has done well at looking forward, even better than Kenya. This is very good for Zambia because the country will get a huge pool of athletes who will start bringing medals,”
he said.
Kiplagat said that Zambia is one of the 65 countries out of the 210 member associations of the IAAF who are implementing the Kids Athletics programme but bemoaned the slow rate at which some member countries were implementing the programme.
And Zambia Amateur Association (ZAAA) president Elias Mpondela expressed excitement at the arrival of Kiplagat saying it showed how much importance the IAAF attached to the Kids Athletics.
“We shall also have the First Lady to grace to the occasion and that means so much to us.
“We are happy and excited about this and we believe that this programme will be a huge success in the country,” he said.
ZAAA communications manager Beryl Opiyo said Kids Athletes Zambia programme will be launched this morning at the Olympics Youth Development Centre (OYDC) with the programme set to start at 09:00 hours.