These Doping Claims will hurt Kenya Dominance -If not well Managed

This doping claims need to be counter checked NOW

All foreign “runners” must be vetted locally

We must Protect our young stars.

Doping drama in Kenya will not end soon as long we do not control the so called foreigner coaches and managers.

Sumgong and F Kiplagat two of Kenya hope in Marathon at Rio

The Kenya 3A, the immigration department must bare full responsibility for all we are seeing happening to our stars. Kenya participated for the very first time Olympic in 1956, but her first ever medal; a bronze was in 1964, won by Wilson Kiprugut in 800m in Tokyo, Japan.

This shows Kenya as a country has a unique talent and blessing given by the Almighty God and this is not by any chance a unique. If you look worldwide, you will find different countries with different talents.

Nigeria, the country has massive talents in football, Senegal has the best basketball team for women in Africa, Jamaica has great sprinters, Russia has wonderful gymnastic athletics, USA and Cuba has great boxers, Kenya and Ethiopia share some of great long distance runners and this is due to the Almighty wishes and there is nothing we can do about it. 

When the world became aware that, Kenya is dominating middle and long distance races, several theories were put forward, and even there were experts who were studying Kenyans, specifically the Kalenjin community which solely has produced over 95 % of all world beaters.

The study found out that, any normal high school male form this community can out run a well-trained athletics from Europe so easily. Their physical strength and able to with stand for long any resistances were found to be a inborn ability and not something you can learn.

“Running, like any sport, is inherently physical, and physical traits inform athletic success. Just because Larry Bird and Michael Jordan are tall doesn't mean they aren't first and foremost great athletes. Part of Olympian Michael Phelps' record-breaking swimming is his unusual body shape, which is genetically inborn; you can't train for longer arms. All athletes owe some of their success to their own physical traits, but because Kalenjin runners share those traits across an ethnic group, and because that ethnic group is part of the story of colonialism and white exploitation of blacks for their physical labor, it's harder to talk about. But that doesn't make their athleticism any less amazing”

Read more at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/why-kenyans-make-such-great-runners-a-story-of-genes-and-cultures/256015/

Athletics Kenya chairman Elgeyo Marakwet County branch Pius Kiplagat Lai has cried out loud and wants these foreigners to be controlled, he says the influx of them is the cause of doping allegations that we keep on seeing reports done by western media.  

Lai was speaking at the side-lines of the Safaricom Iten Road Race on Saturday.

 “In the past, cases of doping were unheard of but today it seems the situation is escalating and we blame this for foreigners who are entering this area and trying to lure our young athletes into using the banned substances,” Lai said.

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“Imagine people who want to misuse such young athletes come from their countries and tell them they will pay for the air ticket and enter them into races abroad. For you to be facilitated, you have to perform well and since they need also money athletes are lured to use the drugs,” claimed Lai.

Over the past three years, about 40 Kenyan athletes have tested positive for the banned substances and some are still serving their respective bans.

Three-time Chicago marathon winner Rita Jeptoo was the biggest casualty in Kenya being the top athlete who tested positive for a banned substance called EPO.

Recently World Anti-Doping Agency removed Kenya from its list of non-compliant countries to its code since the country had started implementing the anti-doping law.

While saying that the athletes should be aware of the punitive measures in the anti-doping law, Lai want the young athletes to train hard and salvage Kenya’s hard earned athletic fame.

“The law is in place and I know the culprits will face the law. Let us stay true to our sport and keep our image clean. Kenya is known as an athletic power-house and we should not taint by accepting to be cheated,” He added.

But three days later after WADA cleared Kenya from watch list; another report emerged claiming one of Kenya senior officials was caught on camera admitting of soliciting money from athletics so to alert them in advance of doping test teams.

Even though we want a clean championship, we also do not want double standard on this matter by these media out lets. The Western media is acting like there is bad blood between them and Kenya athletics.

We never saw this during Canada’s Ben Johnson doping,  

I think it is high time the Kenya government takes control of Iten training camps. Any person entering the country and claims to be am athlete, trainer or manager must be scrutinized well by CID officers in conjunction with KAAA.

The history of any foreign athlete, which races he/she has taken , and time achieved must be counter checked, we cannot allow people taking 3 hours to finish 42kms race to came and camp at our home of Champions.

Any person not known by our KAAA official and has no running data collected by anybody monitoring athletics worldwide, should not be allowed in Kenya in pretence of doing training at Iten.

Owners of training camps in Iten should do Kenya better by making sure that only true athletics are housed in their camps. Proper mechanism in hotels for foreigners should be put in place; anyone with recording equipment’s must get clearance from local authorities.

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We should put in place committed officers who can stop any suspicious person and inquire of his/her interest in those areas.

KAAA official must also pull up their socks and be extra careful with any interviews requested by any foreigner, no matter the weight of story, there should consult security organs and have a lawyer within the interviews.

It is high time, Kenya authority guides our young athletics with passion, Iten and Markwet is our land given to us by Almighty God and the talent within this areas must be protected at all cost.