Kenya steps up fight against doping

By John Kwoba

NAIROBI, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is taking its fight against doping a notch higher and will subject all participants in its national championships to training programmes to lower the risk of sending drug cheats to global championships.

The country, which has the highest number of elite runners, will be taking part in four competitions in the next two months including the World Indoor Championships, World Half marathon championships, Africa Cross Country championships and the Commonwealth Games.

Athletics Kenya Vice President Paul Mutwii has confirmed that all athletes taking part in the championship, which will be used to select Kenya's team for the Africa Cross Country Championships in Algeria, must be clean and understand the pros and cons of doping.

"We are taking this fight head-on and all athletes must know what they need to avoid in the battle against this vice. Kenya will always send clean athletes to competitions and prove that with hard training, you can always excel," Mutwii said on Tuesday in Nairobi.

It's only a year since Kenya was dropped from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) watch list for failing to implement strict rules and guidelines on doping. Athletics officials are not about to hold back.

"So we have requested ADAK (Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya) educate the athletes on what is expected of them so that we can curb the doping menace," Mutwii said.

Kenya will be sending a team of six athletes to the World Half Marathon championships in Valencia, Spain on March 24.

The team, which will be led by defending champion Geoffrey Kamworor and silver medalist Bedan Karoki, will also have Leonard Barsoton, Barselius Kipyego and Jorum Okombo.

The women's team has Fancy Chemutai, Ruth Chepngetich, world record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei, Pauline Kaveke and Mary Wacera.

"Let's win clean and fair. I urge you to desist from using drugs in sports," said ADAK's Director of Research Agnes Mandu.

Meanwhile, the organizer of the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia are contributing to the fight against doping with an extra voluntary financial donation of 50,000 U.S. dollars to strengthen the event's anti-doping programme.

The money put forward by the organizers will allow a greater number of tests to be carried out in the important period leading up to the event and to place more samples in long-term storage for retesting after the event.

This enhanced program will be implemented by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). Enditem