The First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, who is the organiser of the noble race, simultaneously flagged off the 21Km Paralympic Race of the 4th edition of the Beyond Zero Half Marathon. The race, which started and ended at the Nyayo National Stadium, was clustered into different categories, including the 21km half marathon, the 10 km road race, the 5km family race, wheelchair and tricycle races and a special 2km 'pregna' walk for expectant mothers.

Other prominent figures who came to support the First Lady's marathon include the incoming Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and Ethiopia's former First Lady Roman Tesfaye. The First Lady, Margaret, had been training for the race for weeks at State House where she was joined by a number of journalists from various media houses.

This year's edition comes at a time when the country's health sector is faced with a myriad of challenges, among them perennial shortage of facilities which has resulted in endless strikes by medics and increased mortality rate. For instance, in Kiambu county alone, 60 infant deaths were recorded between December 2018 and February 2019 at the Kiambu Level Five Hospital. The Beyond Zero Campaign is an initiative by the First Lady aimed at improving the quality of health services of mothers and children across the country.

Time wasting, injuries, forced substitutions and a red card was the story of the day as Gor Mahia overcame a 10-man NA Hussein Dey 2-0 at the Kasarani stadium in their third match of the Caf Confederation Cup on Sunday.

Francis Kahata and Jacques Tuyisenge scored a goal each to gift the hosts full pints in the ill-tempered clash.

The Algerians were forced by injury to make two substitutions as captain Ahmed Gasmi and midfielder Hocine Orfi were stretchered off the pitch and replaced immediately.

Gasmi’s injury was however more serious, and he was rushed to Aga Khan hospital with a suspected head fracture.
Courtesy of the win, Gor Mahia are back on top of group D with six points.

Gor had their way in the end, but they had to contend with an irate Algerian opposition, whose frustrations were made worse by two early substitutions and the red card.

Hussein Dey drop to second with four points, pending the match between Petro Atletico and Egypt’s Zamalek in Alexandria.

It was a bad day for Hussein Dey, as two of their top players got injured. Captain Ahmed Gasmi and midfielder Hocine Orfi were stretchered off the pitch in the 30th and 37th minutes and replaced immediately by Hocine Laribi and Aberouf Choiuter.

They also suffered another late setback in the 87th minute when Chems Harrag was sent to an early shower for bad mouthing the referee.

It was a bad day for Hussein Dey, as two of their top players got injured. Captain Ahmed Gasmi and midfielder Hocine Orfi were stretchered off the pitch in the 30th and 37th minutes and replaced immediately by Hocine Laribi and Aberouf Choiuter.

They also suffered another late setback in the 87th minute when Chems Harrag was sent to an early shower for bad mouthing the referee.

Tuyisenge, who is the group’s top scorer, compounded the Algerian misery three minutes later by first drawing out goalkeeper Zakaria Bouhalfya and then lifting the ball over him thereby sending the stadium into frenzy.

This goal did not go down well with the opponents, who invaded the Gor technical bench in protest, thereby necessitating a temporary stoppage of play before referee Abdoul Ohabee brought things back to order.

The March 2019 Beyond Zero Half Marathon will be celebrating all those who have partnered with Beyond Zero throughout the years. The marathon is aimed at creating awareness and drawing the attention of stakeholders to the challenges of maternal and infant health in Kenya besides raising resources to increase access to healthcare for mothers and their babies.

The marathon is one of the key resource mobilization events for Beyond Zero, a flagship program aimed at saving the lives of mothers and children by preventing preventable maternal and infant deaths.

The First Lady said despite the successful milestones made by Beyond Zero, largely enabled by resources mobilized through the marathons and partners, her work towards quality and accessible healthcare, is far from being finished.

“Our work will require stepping up our joint efforts, re-dedicating our energies, and building our collective resolve towards a healthier and better future for Kenyans,” said the First Lady

“We started our work at a time when Kenya was considered to be among the most dangerous countries to give birth,’’ said the First Lady pointing out that health access, quality and care was the determinant cause for the unacceptable high mortality and morbidity rates among women and children at the time.
United Nations Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Sidharth Charterjee said Beyond Zero had redefined the ecosystem of reproductive health in Kenya through good partnerships and convergency of policy.

He pledged that the UN family will continue working with the First Lady to ensure the success of both Beyond Zero and the Universal Health Coverage, whose pilot program President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to launch next week in Kisumu.

Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the drop in HIV transmissions between mothers and babies was largely attributed to Beyond Zero’s elimination of Mother-to-Child-Transmission (eMTCT) program.

The relaunch of the marathon coincides with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which was marked on Monday.

The annual Kenya Swimming Federation Long Course National Age Group and Open Championship will be held at the Kasarani Aquatic Stadium, Nairobi, over the weekend.

The event had the young men and women arrive at the Kasarani Stadion Hotel as from tuesday morning for prior preparations to the epic event which is estimated to take four-five days i.e 13th- 16th Feb.
KSF has stated that it is expecting a registration of 2000 participants from all over the country,including mombasa.kisumu and kampala,Uganda.

Former US President Barack Obama has teamed up with America’s elite basketball body, the NBA and the sport’s global governing body FIBA, to start a professional league in Africa.
The Basketball Africa League will initially have 12 teams and is slated to begin in January. Qualification tournaments will be held later this year to determine those clubs, with teams from Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia expected to be among those taking part. No nation will have more than two teams in the league.

Obama, an ardent basketball fan, will have direct involvement in the initiative although his role has been kept under wraps it was announced on Saturday.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver told AP that Obama has told him he wants to “be directly involved with these activities in Africa.”

During a meeting of would-be sponsors, Obama spoke on a video saying, “I hope you know through sport, that if you put in effort, you will be rewarded.”

Two-time Grammy award winner Marcus Miller will headline the Safaricom International Jazz Festival scheduled for 11th – 17th February 2019. At the top of his game for over 30 years, Miller is the winner of the 2013 Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz (Holland), winner of the 2010 Victoire du Jazz (France) and in 2013, was appointed a UNESCO Artist For Peace.

His characteristic bass sound can be heard on a limitless catalog of musical hits from Bill Wither’s “Just the Two of Us”, to Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much”, to songs from Chaka Khan, David Sanborn, Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Elton John and Bryan Ferry.

The 6th edition of the Safaricom International Jazz Festival also features supporting performances from Kenyan guitarist Kato Change, Ghetto Classics (Kenya), The Safaricom Youth Orchestra (Kenya), Jazzrausch Bigband (Germany), Toine Thys Trio feat Herve Samb (Belgium), Yazmin Lacey (United Kingdom), Viviane (Portugal) and the Omri Mor Trio (Israel).

Proceeds from all ticket sales will be donated to the Ghetto classics music programme, which has been the Safaricom Jazz beneficiary since 2014 and has so far received an estimated KES 60 million, funds that have benefitted over 1,400 children from Nairobi and Mombasa. Proceeds from the 2018/2019 Edition will see the Ghetto Classics Schools programme extend to Kisumu.

The 4th edition of the Safaricom International Jazz Festival will be held on Sunday 26th February 2017 at the Kasarani Stadium. This year we have various talented artists from across the globe who are guaranteed to delight all jazz lovers.

David Sanborn, world renowned saxophonist from the USA will be the headlining performer at the festival this year. He will be accompanied by a star studded line up who will be performing with him during the show.

The Hazelnuts, a unique musical phenomenon from Israel, TaxiWars from Belgium and British-Asian clarinetist, composer and music educator Arun Gosh are also slated to dazzle us with their unique sounds.

The Bokani Dyer Trio, who performed at the annual Jazz ahead showcase in Bremen, Germany in April 2016, and Ray Lema from the Democratic Republic of Congo are the African acts also scheduled to perform at the festival.

Local artists lined up for the festival include home grown Nairobi Horns Project, Shamsi Music and the amazing Mwai and The Truth Band.

Music lovers can expect to enjoy a selection of pure jazz as well as a mix of jazz fusions with influences from around the world.

All proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the Ghetto Classics, a non-profit programme that teaches music skills to the youth from underprivileged backgrounds. To date we have successfully raised over 19million towards this programme to uplift the lives of many youth by way of providing musical instruments, classes, and much more.

EVENT DETAILS
Date: Sunday 26th February 2017.
Venue: Kasarani Training Grounds
Entry Charges: Ksh. 2000 for adults and Ksh. 500 for students (proof of ID must be provided)
Tickets: Available at select Safaricom shops, Michael Joseph Centre and via m-Ticketing by dialing 1511.
Gates open at 10 AM show starts at 12 PM.

The annual Kenya Swimming Federation Long Course National Age Group and Open Championship will be held at the Kasarani Aquatic Stadium, Nairobi, over the weekend.

The event had the young men and women arrive at the Kasarani Stadion Hotel as from tuesday morning for prior preparations to the epic event which is estimated to take four-five days i.e 23th- 26th Feb.
KSF has stated that it is expecting a registration of 2000 participants from all over the country,including mombasa.kisumu and kampala,Uganda.

Vincent Kipruto, the 2013 Lake Biwa winner, will return to Otsu. The 2011 world silver medallist has a PB of 2:05:13 and won last year’s Xiamen Marathon.

Fellow Kenyan Ezekiel Kiptoo has been improving steadily in recent years. He reduced his PB to 2:06:07 at last year’s Amsterdam Marathon.

World bronze medallist Solomon Mutai excels at championships, but the Ugandan is still awaiting a breakthrough in an international marathon and will be aiming to do better than his 11th-place finish from last year.

Eritrean Olympian Tewelde Estifanos, Ethiopian 20-year-old Yihunilgn Adane and marathon debutant El Hassan Elabbassi of Bahrain are also set to compete.

The race is also the final opportunity for Japanese marathon runners to impress the team selectors ahead of the IAAF World Championships London 2017.

Satoru Sasaki and Suehiro Ishikawa, who both represented Japan at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, lead the domestic entries. Sasaki finished second at the 2014 Lake Biwa Marathon and went on to reduce his PB to 2:08:56 at the following year’s Fukuoka Marathon. 37-year-old Ishikawa will be making his fourth appearance at Lake Biwa, the setting of his 2:09:10 PB from four years ago.

Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat once again took an overwhelming victory at the eDreams Mitja Marato Barcelona, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, winning comfortably in 1:08:15 on Sunday (12).

Her time was more than three minutes outside the half marathon world record of 1:05:06 set by her compatriot Peres Jepchirchir in Ras Al Khaimah last Friday, but Kiplagat – who broke the world record at this race in 2014 and 2015 – had stated before the race that she was not targeting a world record.

The windy conditions clearly hampered the athletes’ efforts. Paced by Kenyan Dickson Kipchumba and Spain’s Marc Roig, Kiplagat had requested a steady 3:10 steady pace with them for the first half of the race. As agreed, the trio reached the 5km point in 15:47, 37 seconds ahead of the chasing group formed by USA’s Sara Hall, Ethiopia’s Kuma Dibaba, Ireland’s Fionnuala Mc Cormack and Portugal’s Jessica Augusto.

After covering the second five-kilometre segment in 16:03, Kiplagat reached 10km in 31:50 while Dibaba and Hall trailed behind by 68 seconds, themselves 11 seconds ahead of Augusto and 25 clear of McCormack.

Although Kiplagat’s pace dropped further in the second half, she increased her advantage over Dibaba to 94 seconds. Augusto was in third another 20 seconds back but eight seconds clear of Hall in fourth.

At the tape, the former world record-holder signed her fourth win in a row in Barcelona with a relatively modest – by her own lofty standards – 1:08:15, more than a minute quicker than her winning run in Barcelona last year.

Dibaba finished second in 1:09:49 while Augusto took the third place on the podium in 1:10:36, some 43 seconds ahead of a fading Hall with McCormack completing the top five in 1:11:35.

“I’m satisfied with my win but also a little bit disappointed as the wind has annoyed me a lot,” said Kiplagat, who will turn 30 later this month. “I would have liked to run under 1:06 today but at this early stage of the season I’m not at my peak as I’m still in full preparation for the London Marathon in April. I love to come back to Barcelona every year; I realise people already know me and really appreciate me.

“It’s OK, records are there to be broken,” she added when asked about Jepchirchir’s world record earlier in the week. “I’m now happy for her and we’ll try to regain the record in the future.”