To Nairobi with love

On April 12, a team of twelve Finns and one Canadian left for a weekend visit to Nairobi. The number of thirteen delegates turned out to be a lucky one for this lobbying crew from Helsinki. They came back with the right to organize the World Championships in Athletics in 2005. The event is the third largest international sports event after the Olympics and the World Cup in Football.

Former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri led the bidding committee. The delegation included some of the most familiar faces of the political scene of Finnish sport. Minister Suvi Linden, Ilkka Kanerva (MP) and the legendary Lasse Viren (MP) gave the delegation the stature of world-class bid. The Canadian from Helsinki was André Noël Chaker, a long-time resident of Finland and an experienced hand at international sports politics.

"I began the presentation with an old Finnish love song that a Brazilian star of the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki still sang in Finnish to his Finnish friends in his old age. Lasse Viren ended the presentation with a call to his sport 'family' in Africa and elsewhere to come once again to Helsinki. All members of the Helsinki team made an emotional appeal. We clearly won this one on spirit and sincerity," said Chaker upon his return from Kenya.

June 02

• Chairman's update
• 30 years of
ups and downs
• Les Boys tackle the competition in Finland

• Destination Lakehead
• Destination Lapland
• Naisten Kymppi
• Commonwealth Day
in Finland