16 athletes arrived at UWE this morning where they will be based until the Olympics begin. The team will be using training facilities across the city including the new Kip Keino stadium at Stoke Gifford.
David Rudisha, world record holder and reigning world champion for 800m will arrive at Bristol next week after running in Paris at the weekend. Pamela Jelimo, the reigning 800m Olympic Champion, is another of the stars who will be using the Kip Keino stadium at SGS College as their training base. The long distance runners will continue their training at altitude in Kenya.
The Kip Keino Stadium is one of only six venues in the Southwest which has UK Athletics class 'A' certification for its athletics facilities. A �1.3 million investment turned a former training track into a competition-standard athletics ground. Bristol City Council put �450,000 towards the development. Floodlights have been installed so it can be used at night, and �70,000 of new equipment, including pole vaults, hurdles and high jumps has been added.
Twice Olympic gold-medal winner Kip Keino, Chairman of Kenya's National Olympics Committee, will be one of the officials accompanying the squad. He will be given the freedom of the city at a ceremony at Bristol Council house on Thursday night.
As well as training the team will also be visiting 21 schools in the city which through the Bristol-Kenya Partnership have close connections with schools in Kenya. In this video Chair of the Partnership, Bob Reeves and members of the Kenyan group tell us how important these links are.
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