Kenya Will Drug Test At Cross Country Meets
Athletics Kenya will conduct doping tests at several races.
Photo of Mathew Kisorio by Victah Sailer
In the wake of a spat of articles and TV coverage alleging performance-enhancing drug use by Kenyan athletes and foreign runner training in Kenya, Athletics Kenya will conduct doping tests at several races in the KCB National Cross Country Series, which begins on November 3 in Nyahururu, Capital FM reports.
Athletics Kenya's Isaiah Kiplagat, who has been publicly critical of doctors who allegedly administer performance-enhancing drugs and of the German journalist who first reported the purported problem, told Capital FM, "We must have anti-doping exercise for every competition since this is where we shall clean the sport. At least, the national championships and two or three other series meets will have doping control." The series, sponsored by the Kenya Commercial Bank, extends through a stop in Kericho on January 12. After that, trials for the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships will be held in Nairobi on February 16.
The most prominent Kenyan runner to test positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2012 – in this case, for the blood booster EPO – was Mathew Kisorio, a standout half marathoner who once finished fourth in the world cross country championships. Kisorio claimed that other distance runners had acquired drugs from clinics in Nairobi, Eldoret and Iten established for the purpose of supplying the drugs.
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