体坛英语新闻：Rwanda withdraws from hosting Africa Junior Championships

NAIROBI, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) has been left in limbo after Rwanda announced its intention not to host the 2013 African Junior Athletics championships.

Rwanda Athletics Federation president Jean Damascene Nkezabo has written to CAA just nine months before the championships saying the tiny East African country has withdrawn from the host bid citing financial constraints.

CAA Vice President, David Okeyo on Wednesday confirmed the decision by Rwanda to pull out.

"We have received communication from Rwanda that Kigali will not be ready to host the 2013 Africa Junior Championships. This is a blow to our plans because Rwanda had just been awarded the event in July in Benin," Okeyo said in Nairobi.

According to Okeyo, CAA will immediately start a new process to evaluate and vet new hosts.

However, he ruled out Kenya taking up the chance to replace Rwanda saying, the country was yet to recover from the loss of hosting the 2010 Africa Senior Athletics Championships in Nairobi.

"We (Kenya) will not be among the countries interested to take over from Rwanda," said Okeyo. Rwanda failed to procure necessary equipments in time and has always been lagging behind the time ever since they were awarded the event.

"There is no standard tartan track in Rwanda to stage the championship. They also needed equipments for the event and technical support. These all need money and the organising committee has had difficulties getting the money to do all this," said Okeyo.

In July Rwanda was awarded the premier junior track and field competition after Gaberone, Botswana hosted the 2011 event successfully.

"We had a solid bid which has been approved but there is a mandatory inspection to verify what we presented," said Nkezabo back in July after winning the bid. Rwanda was the sole bidder to host the event.

Some of the requirements needed to host the event include, having the financial backing of government, hotels, stadia, security and communication systems, training areas among others.

Meanwhile, Okeyo confirmed that Warri Township Stadium will host the first ever African Youth Athletics Championships next year in Nigeria.