Learning from the best in Kenya

It was a noise unlike anything I had heard before — a cacophonous racket of cheers, screams and thuds all blended together in a two-minute symphony. It built and built to one euphoric eruption, and once it happened all you could do was stand there in awe, aware once again that for all its flaws, there is nothing quite so invigorating as sport.

The Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi was the venue, an old-school arena which is usually home to a couple of local soccer clubs but on this particular afternoon the fans had come for a sport closer to Kenyan hearts: athletics.

For the final edition of the IAAF World U18 Championships, the sport’s governing body took a punt to visit Nairobi, which had never before staged a global event of this stature, featuring more than 800 athletes from 130 countries.