The University of Nairobi's Hotrods Quartet are the first champions of the Open Lanes Varsity Invitational, winning the finals at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Saturday 3 October 2026.

The Hotrods finished with 30 points, scoring 10 points in every race they ran, tech-ish reported. Untamed, another UoN team, came second with 28 points, and Kenyatta University's Endzone was third with 22 points. UoN also topped the university table with 80 points, ahead of Kenyatta University on 58 and Riara University on 50.

The prize is a fully paid trip to South Africa to take part in a race there. Before the finals, the organisers had said four standout students from across the competing teams would earn the trip; the finals announcement gave the trip to the winning team instead, tech-ish reported.

Open Lanes is a running competition for university students in Nairobi, run by On, the Swiss sportswear brand. Six universities took part: Kenyatta University, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Riara University, Strathmore University and UoN.

It started on campus. The first qualifiers ran at Kenyatta University in mid-September, and three KU relay teams went through. A week later, CUEA and Strathmore took six more places after a two-day knockout, and JKUAT, UoN and Riara had the last qualifying round. Eighteen teams, 90 student-athletes, made the finals, where entry was free.

Most athletics competitions are designed for elite athletes. Open Lanes was designed for ordinary students, so its races, which included relays and a steeplechase, were set up for people who do not train on a track. Each team had to decide who runs which leg and who takes on which race, and the points from every race added up to decide the title.

"Every race pushed us differently, and we had to rely on each other to make the right decisions as a team," the Hotrods Quartet's captain said, as reported by tech-ish. The captain was not named in the report.

Navalayo Osembo, On's Director of Africa, said the idea was to "open up the track and give ordinary individuals an opportunity to compete, have fun, and challenge themselves."

What we could not verify: the names of the Hotrods Quartet members or their captain; which race they will run in South Africa, or when they travel; the race distances and how points were shared out to teams that did not win a race. No further photographs from the finals beyond the celebration photo used as the cover were found.

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