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Kenya welcome IOC decision to subject athletes to extra test ahead of Rio Olympics

Xinhua, June 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) Chairman Kipchoge Keino on Tuesday welcomed the decision by International Olympic Committee (IOC) to subject athletes from Kenya to more tests ahead of the Olympics.

This follows a decision by the IOC in Lausanne to place athletes from Russia and Kenya, which are deemed to be non-compliant, to extra checks before they can take part at Rio Olympics.

"It is a good idea, if at all it will put to rest the whole doubts about the ability of our clean athletes. Kenyans are some of the highly tested athletes and if they may take one more test to confirm their innocence so be it," Keino said in Nairobi.

IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement that the presumption of innocence of athletes from these countries was being put seriously into question because of lack of trusted doping controls.

But Keino allayed this will lead to a blanket ban on Kenyan sportsmen from the Rio Olympics especially after it aligned its laws with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

Speaking in Nairobi, Keino said he agrees with IOC demand to increase the frequency of sample testing and meet the international anti-doping standards.

"We need to have a clean sport and I support IOC in hosting a dope-free competition in Rio. But our athletes are innocent and we will be presenting a clean squad to Rio and they deserve to compete in the Olympics," said Keino.

Bach on Tuesday said respective international federations should take responsibility of locking out respective athletes who have been caught doping from the Rio Olympics.

"The international federations and national Olympic committees should undertake all efforts to keep doped athletes away from the Olympic Games Rio 2016. This requires international federations in particular to take swift action to suspend all athletes who have infringed anti-doping rules following the re-testing programme of samples from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

"IOC wants every international federation to take a decision on the eligibility of such athletes on an individual basis to ensure a level playing field in their sport," said Bach. Endit