EXCLUSIVE: Kenyan sprint coach expelled from Rio 2016 over doping

A sprint coach in the Kenyan track and field team for the Rio 2016 Olympics has been expelled from the Summer Games in the second doping scandal to rock the decorated athletes on the eve of action.

Retired sprint legend, John Anzrah, has been thrown out of Brazil after he posed as an athlete and gave out a urine sample having worn the accreditation badge of men 800m runner and last year’s Beijing IAAF World Championships fourth finisher, Ferguson Rotich.

“The problem with John Anzrah is he took possession of an identity card (accreditation) of an athlete who was in the list of WADA for out of competition dope testing and went to the dining hall.

“He was picked and taken to the doping control station purportedly as Ferguson Rotich and subjected to produce the sample and he signed. The crime he has committed against Team Kenya and that is why we are sending him back home is because he could have impersonated himself as an athlete.

“Secondly it was wrong for him to produce sample and have him even signing samples as Ferguson Rotich,” Stephen Arap Soi said from Rio on Thursday.

Anzrah is the second Kenyan official to be kicked-out from Rio 2016 after retired Major Michael Rotich who was the Team Manager for track and field was sent home after being caught on tape by undercover reporters asking for bribes to inform a bogus British running team when DCOs were expected to come to camp for drug tests.

Deputy President, William Ruto who had just landed in Rio for the Games issued a stern warning to officials saying action would be taken on any caught putting the country’s runners into disrepute.

“Let us not talk about rumours let us talk about what has happened. One sports administrator has been sent home, Mr Rotich is in incarceration. We have made sure we protect our sports status to ensure Mr Rotich and any other person found on the wrong side will face the law,” Ruto told Citizen TV.

Sources inside the Village reveals that Anzrah and five other officials have not been accredited since setting foot in Rio on Sunday evening.

Rotich, who finished second at the Kenyan Trials for Rio 2016, came in handy to assist him get food after staying outside the village without any assistance.

Rotich and teammate, men 5000m runner, Isaiah Kiplangat Koech are expected to make a statement over the matter in Rio.

Additional reporting from Rio by Waihiga Mwaura, Philip Muchiri and Michael Bowen

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olympics athletics doping team kenya Rio 2016 John Anzrah

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