AIU extends war on doping to road running

As the Athletics Kenya Annual Athletes’ Conference kicks off on Wednesday in Eldoret, the fight against doping is expected to feature prominently in the four-day event set to end on Saturday.

With the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) shifting the war on doping to road running athletes, Kenyan road runners will also interact with officials from AIU led by Deputy Head Thomas Capdevielle and Adityer Kumar- Head of Education and Communication.

While addressing press on Tuesday, Capdevielle revealed that the AIU has launched a new program dubbed ‘Road Running Integrity Programme 2020’ with focus on road running athletes globally.

“This programme came from an analysis that we conducted last year we found that 76 per cent of 50 IAAF Gold Label races were not part of any out-of-competition anti-doping programme. We thus brought together all the stakeholders of road running industry and ask them to contribute to a dedicated integrity program,” said Capdevielle.

With majority of road running athletes hailing from East Africa, Capdevielle hailed AK for organising the conference.

“This programme should be considered as an investment in that it will protect the reputation of Kenyan athletes. We will also be meeting athletes and officials from Ethiopia as well,” he said.

With Kenya still under category A of World Athletics watch list, Capdevielle was however non-committal on whether Kenya will be out of the watch list.

“The situation in Kenya is rather complex due to rampant doping. Of course, we have seen a lot of improvements however I cannot commit to any timeliness at the moment,” noted Capdeivelle.

At the same time, Ministry of Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed reiterated government’s desire to criminalize the doping menace in the country.

“We are in the process of amending the law to make sure that doping is criminalized. We have started the process and we have a team that is working and hopefully early next year we will have it in place. However, it is also important to note that this is a long process that will involve other institutions like parliament,” said Amina.

Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) Chief Executive Officer Japhter Rugut said they have conducted 567 tests since July alongside outreach programmes like workshops and seminars.

Other issues to be addressed at the conference themed ‘I Choose Intergrity’ include; investment, taxation, ethics and values and athlete-media relations.