This photo taken on March 6, 2008, shows a runner powering up a country
road during an early morning training run near the camp he and other
aspiring athletes attend in Kaptagat in the vicinity of the Kenyan town
of Eldoret. A failure by Kenya's sports bosses to address allegations of
doping is casting a shadow over the country's inspirational rise to
global distance running dominance and tarnishing a major source of
national pride. AFP | ROBERTO SCHMIDT
A failure by Kenya's sports bosses to address
allegations of doping is casting a shadow over the country's
inspirational rise to global distance running dominance and tarnishing a
major source of national pride.
Last year the global
anti-doping body, WADA, asked Kenya to investigate after an undercover
German television journalist alleged that the blood-boosting drug EPO
and other doping products were readily available to local athletes.
"Despite
assurances, WADA is still waiting patiently for the investigation to
take place," the anti-doping body said this week. (Read: Kenya doping under Wada focus)
Accused
of dragging its heels and adopting a head-in-the-sand approach to the
problem, Kenya now risks being singled out for criticism when WADA holds
it World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg on November
12-15.
At the very least it would be damaging for
running powerhouse Kenya's reputation, and at worst could pave the way
for punitive action by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Since
January 2012, increased doping tests have netted 17 Kenyan cheats.
While none of them have been big-name record breakers, the findings have
contradicted previous assertions from Athletics Kenya, one of the
country's most powerful sports bodies, that its runners are spotless.
Speaking
on the sidelines of last weekend's Nairobi marathon, a major showcase
for the undoubted depth of Kenyan talent, Athletics Kenya's vice
president David Okeyo insisted that there were only "isolated cases".
"The
impression that Kenyans are winning because they are taking performance
enhancing drugs, it is not correct. There are isolated cases... and it
does not mean that all Kenyans are winning because they are taking
drugs," he told AFP.
"We
are very serious on the doping issue... we're not trying to hide
anything," he stressed, saying the sport was far too important for the
country to be allowed to be ruined by cheats.
"It is
the only sport that sells Kenya worldwide. It's really marketing Kenya
worldwide. Most of our athletes are good ambassadors," Okeyo said.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
But
all is not well in Athletics Kenya, which been locked in an internal
power-struggle for much of this year amid a rebellion against its
president Isaiah Kiplagat, who has been in charge for 21 years.
Athletics
Kenya has found itself being unfavourably compared to cycling's
governing body, the UCI, which was accused of turning a blind eye to
doping by Lance Armstrong and others in the peloton because it was also
charged with promoting and financing the sport -- a clear conflict of
interest.
Kiplagat's assertion that the sports ministry
is to blame for the stand-off with WADA also signals the country has a
major bureaucratic problem.
A prominent voice of
dissent has been former Kenyan distance runner and three-time 3000m
steeplechase world champion Moses Kiptanui.
"Nothing
has been done about the issue of doping in the country," Kiptanui told
AFP, accusing Athletics Kenya bosses as being more concerned with
"fighting each other over the management of the sport."
Although
he said he believed that most Kenyan runners were clean, he alleged
that local anti-doping officials were so determined to keep a lid on
even isolated cases that they "collude to clear the athletes of any
wrongdoing before they are caught."
According to
Athletics Kenya, the runners testing positive have either been naive --
by taking over-the-counter cough remedies without checking -- or
manipulated by corrupt foreign sports agents operating in the
high-altitude Rift valley region.
The tensions with
WADA are also bad news for the likes of Olympic 800m champion and world
record holder David Rudisha, the new marathon world record holder Wilson
Kipsang or other top elites, who are intensively tested and are widely
seen as nothing less than exceptional athletes.
Such runners risk now being tarnished if the clouds over Kenyan sport do not clear.
"The
problem is that we don't know," said Ross Tucker, a prominent exercise
physiologist with the University of Cape Town and Sports Science
Institute of South Africa.
"I think Kenya is one of
sports' greatest stories. I want to believe, but I've been burned before
by athletes who I admired, but who turned out to be taking performance
enhancing drugs," said Tucker, whose website sportsscientists.com is
regarded as a leading authority on physiology, performance and doping in
athletics and cycling.
According to Tucker, there was no evidence that Kenya had a doping problem similar to that seen in cycling.
"It's
not like in cycling, where you have organised teams with doctors and
agents and the money to have a sophisticated doping programme. Some of
these (Kenyan) athletes have problems getting decent food, and have
training setbacks from basic preventable diseases, like malaria, so it's
hard to believe that there is an expensive doping programme going on,"
he said.
Nevertheless, the allegations and perceived
failure of Kenya to address the issue had opened up a credibility gap
that needs to be closed.
"The authorities in Kenya have
every interest in investigating and opening up, showing that they're
transparent and removing the doubts," he said.
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