The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will be moving its attention to Kenya once it has finished its duties assessing Jamaica’s anti-doping programme.
Jamaica has been under scrutiny for several months with numerous world class athletes hitting the headlines for failing drugs tests, but now it looks as though Kenya has followed suit.
Since the start of last year 17 Kenyan runners have failed doping tests, a huge increase on the two runners that were found guilty between 2010 and 2012.
The news came just days before Geoffrey Mutai and Priscah Jeptoo convincingly claimed the men and women’s titles at the ING New York City Marathon.
Kenya have been at the top of middle and long distance running for many years now, but a slump in medals at the recent world and Olympic championships has seen their dominance lost to the Ethiopians and Britain’s Mo Farah.
Kenya claimed just two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics, compared to their six in Beijing, and brought home five golds from the 2013 World Championships, two down from their tally in Daegu, 2011.
WADA were inclined to visit Kenya in October 2012, after the German broadcaster ARD alleged than Kenyan athletes were sacrificing some of their race winnings in return for banned substances. However, there has been very little progress since then.
Rodney Swigelaar, WADA’s Africa office director, told The Guardian: “We are very frustrated. It ‘s more than a year now since we went there in October and even longer since the rumours started to spread. We have not been informed that this task team is in place. Officially I cannot say where they are at with their investigation. “
When leaving Jamaica on Wednesday (October 30), WADA officials did not comment to the media, but more is expected to be revealed at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg, between November 12-15.
