By Robert Kibet
Everyone saw Kenya’s historic 2029 World Athletics Championships victory in Budapest. Few saw the journalists working behind the scenes to help tell the story that Kenya took into that room.
Veteran sports journalist Elias Makori, a World Athletics Media Delegate and member of the World Athletics Heritage Plaque Committee, was brought in to assist the Nairobi bid, particularly with its presentation video.
Working with Chris Mbaisi and producer Samuel Wamuhiu, Makori travelled to Nyamira, Nandi and Uasin Gishu, capturing messages from athletics legends Charles Asati, Amos Biwott and Kipchoge Keino.
A call to Addis Ababa also brought messages from Haile Gebrselassie and Great Ethiopian Run CEO Dagmawit Amare.
But one message stood out.
President William Ruto’s address from State House, which Makori helped put together, reinforced Kenya’s commitment to hosting the championships.
“The game-changer was the message from the house on the hill,” Makori recalls.
Elias Makori at last weekend’s World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo / Pura Vida Sports Africa)
For Makori, however, Nairobi 2029 is the culmination of a much longer journey. In 2012, while serving on the World Athletics Press Commission, he proposed that Kenya bid for the 2017 World Youth Championships, believing the experience could eventually lead to the Senior World Championships.
Nairobi hosted the World U20 Championships in 2021.
Fourteen years after that original idea, the dream has reached Nairobi 2029. “It was a dream incubated 14 years ago,” Makori says.
Behind Kenya’s historic bid were presentations, paperwork, lobbying and leadership, but also journalists working quietly to ensure Kenya’s athletics story was told to the world.
