Kenya announces stringent drug tests for Tokyo World Championships

NAIROBI: Kenyan athletes are to be drug-tested three times to qualify for selection to this summer´s world championships in Tokyo as the country struggles to shake off its doping scandals, authorities said Wednesday.

Athletics Kenya (AK) chief Jackson Tuwei said a pool of 444 contenders for the championships have been identified for the testing programme, which will be coordinated by the federation in conjunction with the Kenyan and World Athletics anti-doping agencies.

Tuwei said the country was maintaining the stringent doping measures introduced before the Paris Olympics in a bid to keep the athletes clean for the event that runs from September 13 to 21.

“Athletes may be subject to both in-competition and out-of-competition testing,” Tuwei told reporters.

“Missing a test or failing to comply with testing authorities and sample collection procedures will affect their eligibility,” he added.

Kenya has invested massively to clean up its image after a string of drugs scandals around the 2016 Rio Olympics led to it being declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Nearly 130 Kenyan athletes, mainly long-distance runners, have been sanctioned for drugs offences since 2017.

In March, former half-marathon world record holder Kibiwott Kandie was suspended by the AIU while under investigation for “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection”. Kenya remains in the top category on the WADA watchlist, despite the government announcing an investment of $25 million over five years to combat the problem.

WADA director general Olivier Niggli said recently he was worried by continued drug scandals in Kenya.

“Kenya has been a concern for a number of years,” said Niggli, after a meeting of the anti-doping body´s executive committee on March 27.

But World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said on a visit to Kenya earlier in the month that he was satisfied with the progress made by the east African country.