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Success on track forces Kenyan athletes to face more dope tests

2013-05-21 10:42 Xinhuanet

NAIROBI, May 19 (Xinhua) -- More often than not athletics greats go on too long, take one stride too many, one jump more than is good for them.

This is all in search for perfection and conquering their opponents. Of course none likes living with the consequences of decisions that they did not make.

But in recent doping cases in Kenya, athletes have come under scrutiny and must learn to accept what nature is telling them via the mechanism of their bodies refusing to make that extra step to the top of the world.

Retirement is a dreaded issue among athletes, especially if they did not invest well. But there is no perfect way to go, but go they must. Yet many Kenyan runners are not heeding to this fact.

It is what prompted World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President John Fahey to visit Kenya last year. His tour was meant to increase WADA's scrutiny level of activities in Kenya, putting sports cheats in the country on notice.

Fahey said Kenya was an important nation in the world of sports and thus there was a need to increase its anti-doping programs.

"We want to make sure that Kenya is operating effectively and therefore must have a robust and comprehensive doping program. We want to increase the activity in anti-doping," Fahey said.

With almost 80 percent domination of road races and marathon in the world, Kenyans are the most tested athletes globally both in and out of competition.

For some time, there was no cheats found in Kenya at major championships, but the pressure from the managers to win more money, or the desire by the athletes to push their bodies beyond their limit has seen the vice creep in at an alarming rate.

That explains why for almost two decades only five Kenyan athletes were found guilty of doping, all for their own ignorance.

But in the last one year alone, the trend has picked up sharply to force both the Kenyan government and WADA to raise a red flag.

Now Kenya is under spotlight and like other countries, especially the United States, believed to have many cheats in their camps. Last year, WADA president John Fahey visited Kenya and held talks with government and athletics officials.

"WADA is concerned the Kenya government is not giving the matter of doping the seriousness it deserves," Athletics Kenya president Isaiah Kiplagat said during a meeting in Nairobi.

"Kenya's credibility is being doubted in the athletics world and we do not want shame at the World Championships, or any major championships globally. We must end the vice."

Kenya of course has already suspended several athletes who were caught having used performance enhancement drugs (EPO) or any other stimulants that are banned. So far five marathoners were banned by Kenya this year after positive dope tests.

Now, Kiplagat has confirmed that through the help of WADA and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Kenya is to build a Anti Doping Centre in Eldoret.

This will be the third in Africa after one in Tunis, Tunisia and Johannesburg, South Africa. The anti-doping center in Eldoret, will be at the granary of distance running in the east African nation.

Allegations that Kenyan athletes were using drugs surfaced ahead of the London Olympic Games when German television broadcaster ARD reported systematic doping by elite Kenyan runners at training camps in the Rift Valley region.

Of course Athletics Kenya rejected the accusations but Kenyan runners performed below expectations at London Olympics.

"The number is growing and we are not happy about the statistics. We only hope the culprits remain at a manageable level and doping is not widespread," said Athletics Kenya Vice President David Okeyo.

The IAAF is undertaking a feasibility study towards establishing a blood-testing center in Eldoret.

Of recent, more than 40 leading Kenyan athletes were subjected to out-of-competition blood tests after a team of overseas drug-testers paid an unannounced visit to the Rift Valley base.

Moses Kiptanui, one of the most successful athletes in the proud history of Kenyan running, claims doping is rife among athletes in the east African country.

The three-times 3,000m steeplechase world champion, now coaching, alleges many athletes use performance-enhancing drugs as a shortcut to wealth.

"The information shows that there are a number of athletes out there who are using drugs," said Kiptanui.

"They want to get money by all means, either by a genuine way or another way. We have put rules in place. If we don't use these rules then athletes will still use these drugs."

Last year alone, 13 Kenyan runners returned positive tests. These results have been accompanied by allegations of widespread doping at high-altitude training camps.

A first sign that the number of cases is causing alarm in Kenya came earlier this year when the government began an investigation, described as "secretive" and not enough for Wada's athlete committee, which includes the British cyclist David Millar and Frankie Fredericks, the former Olympic sprinter.

The committee believes only an independent inquiry can address the issue adequately.

Wada has labelled Kenya as one of its global doping hot spots and a "location of choice" for would-be dopers, not just Kenyans but athletes from other countries and regions too.

Efforts to police isolated training camps around the Eldoret region have proved difficult, but all the major Kenyan runners who competed in the London Marathon said they have been tested three or four times in the last year.

Wada recently revoked testing accreditation for a laboratory in Tunis, meaning that Johannesburg hosts the only lab in Africa where samples can currently be processed. Kiplagat said taking samples to South Africa is costly and a centre in Eldoret will help strike out the vice.

Among the athletes who have been found guilty include Rose Chesire joins a lean list of athletes from Kenya who have been banned for failing drug test.

In 2008, AK banned sprinter Elizabeth Muthoka after she had taken a cocktail of drugs to cure her low haemoglobin (red blood cells) count but they contained the banned substance Nandrolone.

In the process she also lost the national women's 400m national record of 50.82 seconds ran at the Kenyan Olympic trials in Nairobi.

Other Kenyans who have been banned before for doping and served their term include road racer, Pamela Chepchumba, Lydia Cheromei (Clomiphene) in 2006 and Susan Chepkemei (Salbutamol) 2007.

Those still serving their two-year ban include Moses Kurgat, Cosmas Kyeva, Neriah Nyaboke Asiba, Ronald Rutto, Anthony Wairuri, Salome Jerono Biwott and Jynocel Basweti Onyancha.

Others are Wilson Erupe Loyanae, Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich, Moses Kiptoo Kurgat, Genoveva Kigen, Nahashon Kimaiyo, Matthews Kisorio and Rael Kiyara. (By John Kwoba)

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