World Athletics has finally given the thumbs up for the staging of the World Under-20 Championships in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, six weeks before the event is scheduled to get under way on August 17.

It will last for six days.

World Athletics (formerly the International Association of Athletics Federations) made the announcement on Monday following a four-day visit and site inspection by an expert team to monitor the progress of the local organising committee earlier in the month for the championships that was postponed last year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A World Athletics release on Monday said the body was committed to a safe championships as it had “well-established and pressure-tested health and safety protocols in place to protect those participating in World Athletics series events, having successfully conducted the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia and the World Athletics Relays in Silesia during the past year.

“In Silesia, two months ago, more than 7,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted on some 2,000 participants (which included 700 team members from 31 countries), without a single case of infection at the event,” the release pointed out.

Jamaica are expected to participate after staging the National Junior Championships last week at the National Stadium.

The World Athletics release said the championships were expecting “1,300 athletes from 128 member federations” despite the withdrawal of at least one team so far — Great Britain.

World Athletics said during its visit it “prioritised discussions about the measures being taken to create a safe and secure environment for athletes and other accredited groups, and the additional elements and resources required to stage an international event in these times”.

Among the commitments it got from the Kenyan Government, it said, were: “Waive the 14-day quarantine upon arrival for all participants (who will undergo the pre-event protocol as laid out by World Athletics and successfully trialled at the World Athletics Relays in Silesia in May); streamline visa application procedures – instead of each individual having to request online, the government will issue visas to all accredited people and activate measures to guarantee that the security of all participants remains strong at all times.”

While it said the “World U20 Championships is a significantly larger event… our Health and Science Department is confident that these measures will scale up successfully to protect both the international teams and officials attending this event, and the local population in Nairobi”.

There are also plans, World Athletics said, to “build two bubbles in Kasarani and Nyayo stadiums, respectively, as well as 10 hotel bubbles (for teams, officials and suppliers)” and projected that there will be more than 15,000 COVID tests done for the duration.