Kenya’s Olympic boss says country’s athletes will pass anti-doping tests
Nairobi, July 28 (IANS) The Kenyan team for the Rio Olympics consisting of over 60 athletes will pass the anti-doping tests without any problem, the country’s Olympic boss said.
Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the National Olympics Committee of Kenya, on Wednesday said they have sensitised the team, monitored their performances and training and are certain they will have no problems in Rio as the world congregates in the Brazilian city for the games starting on August 5.
“It will be frustrating and bad for us if our athletes are implicated in fresh doping scandal. We have the most tested bunch of athletes and they have passed each stage of testing placed before them. Kenya is sending to Brazil a clean team,” he said in Nairobi.
Keino also confirmed that they have organised training related to anti-doping at Eldoret as part of efforts to inform the athletes on doping questions and consequences ahead of the Games, reports Xinhua.
“The key thing about doping is education of the athletes. We have and will continue providing that education to athletes,” Keino said. Over 40 doping cases have been reported from Kenyan athletes in the last four years.
But the majority so far have been lower level runners who haven’t won major titles with the exception of marathon champion Rita Jeptoo (Chicago and Boston), Mathew Kisorio, Agnes Jeruto and two-time cross-country world champion Emily Chebet who are among those banned.
Kenya’s anti-doping programme has currently been declared non-compliant by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) but that does not mean the country’s clean athletes should also be banned.
In June, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) told the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to test individual athletes in Kenya to make sure they are clean before Rio.
That has led to over four tests done on the athletes in the last three weeks during their training at Eldoret.
