MELBOURNE: Kenya’s doping problems were caused by “foolish” young athletes desperate to win races and cash in on the sport, David Rudisha said on Wednesday, but the Olympic 800 metres champion hopes his country is on the right track to restoring its reputation.
The 27-year-old, who lit up the 2012 London Games with a brilliant world record performance in the 800m final, has been distressed by the allegations of doping and corruption that have rocked the East African country’s athletics programme.
Kenya has been hugely successful in middle and long-distance running for decades and remains a global leader on the track and in big-city marathons, but some 40 of its athletes have been banned for doping in the last three years.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has given the country an April deadline to implement new anti-doping measures or risk non-compliance, which could pave the way for a ban on its track and field athletes competing at the Rio Olympics.
“It’s really sad, it’s really unfortunate that this is happening because Kenya previously has a really good reputation,” reigning world champion Rudisha told Reuters in an interview in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“And for many years Kenya has been doing well on the athletics stage, winning championships without this problem. A few years ago this problem has been coming.
“But it’s really tough. Because these young athletes who are desperate to make money, to win races, they end up being fools and getting into these drugs.”
Allegations of corruption also hit the national governing body, mirroring the wider scandal that plunged the International Association of Athletics Federations into crisis last year and triggered Russia’s suspension from international athletics.
Athletics Kenya (AK) Chief Executive Isaac Mwangi was provisionally suspended by the IAAF last week after two local athletes accused him of seeking bribes to reduce doping bans.
Three other senior AK officials were suspended in November, including former president Isaiah Kiplagat, over corruption allegations.
As Kenya’s preeminent track star and a pin-up for world athletics, Rudisha’s ineligibility to compete at Rio under a blanket ban would be a massive blow for the sport and the Games, not to mention the runner’s personal aspirations.
Rudisha told reporters that he did not feel the doping problem was widespread in Kenya, but said the country lacked infrastructure to monitor the thousands of runners.
“A lot of education needs to be done,” he said.
“Like some of the countries which are not having a lot of infrastructure — we don’t even have a lot in Kenya — and you find that it’s very difficult for the anti-doping agency to control this situation because there are thousands and thousands of Kenyans training out there and only a few of them are on the WADA list.
“You can imagine how difficult (that is).” Rudisha would not comment directly when asked whether he was confident his title defence would go ahead but said he was hopeful Kenya and the sport’s reputation could be restored.
“We hope that things are in place,” he told Reuters of Kenya’s battle to become WADA-compliant before the deadline.
