Kenya brings together more than 300 young athletes in Nairobi: Zone V Youth Games an important test for Dakar 2026.
From 24 to 28 August, Nairobi will be the centre of one of the more important regional competitions for young African athletes in the final stage of preparations for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. The ANOCA Zone V Youth Games return after a seven-year break and, according to announcements by the organisers and reports from Kenya, will bring together more than 300 competitors from 11 countries. The programme includes athletics, swimming, 3x3 basketball, judo, cycling, tennis and beach volleyball, a total of seven sports offering young competitors an opportunity to gain international experience immediately before the biggest sporting event for their age group. Kenyatta University will be the main operational and accommodation hub of the Games, while individual competitions are also planned at other locations in Kenya. The organisers present the event simultaneously as a development platform for talent, a test of the host's capabilities and an opportunity to strengthen sporting connections among the countries of East and Northeast Africa.
Eleven countries and seven sports at one regional event.
According to information published ahead of the start of the Games, national teams from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt are coming to Nairobi. This corresponds to the current composition of Zone V of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, ANOCA, which brings together 11 national Olympic committees from that part of the continent. Citizen Digital states that more than 300 young athletes are expected, while the chair of the local organising committee, Angela Luchivya, gave a more detailed estimate ahead of the competition according to which Kenya should have 184 athletes and the other ten countries approximately 250. That estimate points to the possibility that the final number of accredited athletes could exceed 400, while approximately 500 participants are expected together with officials. The final figures may change until the accreditation process is completed, so it is most accurate to speak of several hundred young athletes from across Zone V.
The competition programme consists of athletics, swimming, 3x3 basketball, judo, road cycling, tennis and beach volleyball. These are disciplines requiring very different physical and technical abilities, so the Games are not focused only on East Africa's traditionally strong athletics teams. It is precisely the breadth of the programme that allows Zone V countries to compare the development of young athletes in team, combat, aquatic, racket and endurance sports. For national federations, such a format has additional value because the results of different development programmes and the quality of work with younger age groups can be assessed within a few days. For the athletes themselves, it is an opportunity to experience a multisport international environment, including accommodation with other national teams, competition protocols, travel and the pressure of competing for the national team.
Kenyatta University is the main hub, while part of the competition moves outside Nairobi.
Kenyatta University will have a central role as the main village and venue for most of the programme. According to information from the local organising committee reported by Justice Gauge, the swimming competitions are scheduled to take place at the Moi International Sports Centre in Kasarani, a large sports complex in Nairobi, while cycling is expected to be held in Murang’a County, north of the Kenyan capital. Such a distribution means that the organisers must coordinate transport, security, medical support and schedules across several locations, giving the event an important operational dimension as well. Although this is a youth competition, the requirements of a multisport event resemble smaller continental games in many respects: delegations must be accommodated, accredited and transported, while the sports must have harmonised technical conditions and schedules.
According to the plan presented at the official launch of the Games in Nairobi, 24 August is intended for the arrival of delegations. The opening ceremony and the first competition day are scheduled for 25 August, the full programme continues on 26 and 27 August, and the departure of delegations is planned for 28 August. This is why announcements include both wording that the Games run from 24 to 28 August and that the competitive part lasts from 25 to 27 August; these two pieces of information do not contradict each other but refer to the delegations' overall stay and to the actual days of competition for results. For young athletes, a short, tightly packed competition means that adaptation to the conditions, recovery and concentration will be almost as important as the form they brought to Nairobi.
Return after the first edition in Rwanda in 2019.
The current Games carry additional significance because the Zone V Youth Games are returning to the calendar after a long interruption. The previous edition was held in April 2019 in Huye, Rwanda, and UNHCR reported at the time that a refugee team composed of young athletes living in Rwandan refugee camps also took part in the event. National teams from Zone V countries competed at that edition, along with guest nation France, while the programme was narrower than in Nairobi. The seven-year gap between the two editions shows why the current organisers emphasise the need to re-establish regular development competitions for young athletes. In a region with a large number of talented athletes, a lack of international appearances in younger age categories can make the transition from national competitions to African and world level more difficult.
The importance of such Games is not only in the medals. ANOCA Zone V president Donald Rukare described competitions of this type as a space where future champions can be identified, while Kenyan sports officials emphasise that younger athletes should be given more structured opportunities to compete internationally. This logic is particularly important in sports where development depends not only on training but also on the frequency of high-quality competition against peers from other systems. Young tennis players, judokas, swimmers or 3x3 basketball players can gain experience at regional level that is difficult to reproduce solely in domestic leagues and championships. For coaches and federations, Nairobi is therefore equally a place of competition and a place to assess how competitive their development programmes are.
Dakar 2026 gives the Games additional importance.
The most important broader context of this year's Zone V Youth Games is the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Senegal from 31 October to 13 November. The International Olympic Committee confirms that this will be the first Olympic sporting event held on the African continent, giving it historical significance that goes beyond the competition programme itself. According to official Dakar 2026 materials, around 2,700 young athletes are expected, and the competition programme will include 25 sports. Events will be distributed across three host areas: Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly. The organisers also highlight a complete balance in the number of female and male athletes, which is one of the key elements of the concept of the 2026 Games.
The connection between Nairobi and Dakar, however, does not mean that the Zone V Youth Games are a universal qualifying competition for the Youth Olympic Games. Qualification systems differ from sport to sport and are determined by the international sports federations in cooperation with Olympic structures. It is therefore more accurate to speak of an important developmental and competitive test rather than a single qualifying tournament. In sports such as athletics, swimming, 3x3 basketball, judo, cycling and beach volleyball, which are part of the Dakar 2026 competition programme, performances in Nairobi can give coaches and Olympic committees a very current picture of the form and readiness of candidates. Tennis, according to the official Dakar 2026 programme, is part of the inclusion and engagement programme rather than the main medal competition programme, so its developmental role in Nairobi should not be equated with a direct route to an Olympic medal in Senegal.
Dakar 2026 is also conceived as more than a conventional competition. The IOC emphasises the educational programme, cultural exchange and development of young athletes as integral parts of the Youth Olympic Games concept. For participants from Zone V, the experience of a multisport village in Nairobi is therefore particularly useful: for many, it will be their first encounter with an environment in which athletes from a range of disciplines and countries compete at the same time. The ability to adapt to such an environment is precisely one of the elements that often proves important at major games, especially for very young national-team athletes. In this sense, Nairobi can serve as a smaller, regional simulation of part of the experience awaiting the best among them in Senegal.
Kenya also uses the competition as a test of its organisational ambitions.
Kenyan minister responsible for sport Salim Mvurya, during the presentation of the Games, stressed that he sees hosting as an opportunity to strengthen regional integration, connect countries and develop young people. According to him, government services are involved in preparations related to security, hospitality and organisation. President of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya Shadrack Maluki at the same time emphasised the need for early identification and systematic development of talent and linked the hosting to Kenya's broader ambitions to organise larger international competitions. Such messages also have a practical background: running a multisport event with several hundred young competitors requires coordination among the ministry, the Olympic committee, sports federations, the university, health services and security services.
The broader sporting calendar further reinforces this context. The Confederation of African Football confirms that Kenya, together with Tanzania and Uganda, will host the PAMOJA 2027 Africa Cup of Nations from 19 June to 17 July 2027, the first edition of that competition to be jointly organised by three countries. Preparations for AFCON cannot be directly compared with the Zone V youth Games, but both events require reliable infrastructure, transport, security protocols, institutional coordination and the ability to work with international delegations. The organisation of the competition in Nairobi therefore also has value as an operational exercise, even though its scale is considerably smaller. Successful delivery can help local organisers further develop the people and procedures needed for larger events.
Regional integration through sport is not merely a political message.
The composition of Zone V shows how geographically and athletically diverse the competition is. The same structure includes countries with a long tradition of world-class athletics results, states that have invested in basketball, cycling or combat sports in recent years, and national Olympic committees with very different financial and infrastructure capacities. Joint Games therefore create room to compare standards, exchange professional knowledge and develop contacts among coaches and sports administrators. In younger age categories, such a network can be particularly important because it makes it easier to organise future camps, bilateral meetings and regional tournaments.
The event also has a symbolic dimension at a time when Africa is preparing for the first Youth Olympic Games on its own soil. The IOC presents Dakar 2026 as a project intended to leave a long-term legacy through sport, education and the development of local expertise, while regional competitions such as the one in Nairobi can provide that idea with a concrete sporting foundation. Dakar's historical significance will be greater if the increased attention to African sport is not limited to only two weeks of the Olympic programme but leads to more frequent and higher-quality youth competitions across the continent. The Zone V Youth Games are therefore also interesting as an indicator of whether the renewed regional format can be sustained beyond 2026, rather than remaining a one-off preparation for the major event in Senegal.
For the young competitors, however, broader institutional ambitions will move into the background as soon as the races, matches and bouts begin. Their immediate task will be to turn training into results, deal with opponents they often do not meet in domestic competitions and show whether they can maintain their performance under the pressure of representing their country. That is precisely why Nairobi is an important step: it does not guarantee a path to Dakar, Los Angeles or the highest senior level, but it provides an international test that development sport cannot replace with training. When delegations leave Kenya on 28 August, medals will be the most visible result, but for national Olympic committees the more important outcome may be the answer to the question of which young athletes are ready for the next level.
Sources:
- Citizen Digital – preview of the ANOCA Zone V Youth Games, list of countries and sports, and statements by Kenyan sports officials (link)
- Justice Gauge – operational schedule, estimates of participant numbers and competition locations presented at the launch of the Games (link)
- Inside The Games – verification of dates, sports programme, return of the competition after 2019 and connection with Dakar 2026 (link)
- UNHCR Rwanda – information on the previous ANOCA Zone V Youth Games held in Huye in 2019 and the participation of a refugee team (link)
- International Olympic Committee / Dakar 2026 – official information on the dates, sports programme, number of athletes and historical status of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games (link)
- CAF – official information on the joint hosting by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda of AFCON PAMOJA 2027 and the tournament dates (link)