AK summons athletes for mandatory anti-doping training

Athletics Kenya (AK) is likely to take the stern measure of barring athletes from participating at the forthcoming National Trials for the IAAF World Championships should they skip an anti-doping education program organized by the national athletics governing body.

The federation issued the warning on Tuesday as it reiterated its resolve to have Kenya struck off the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) doping watch-list before the global showpiece due August 4-13 in London.

“Part of the requirement we have to fulfill is to organize an anti-doping education program especially on elite athletes who are probable to represent Kenya in the IAAF World Championships,” the AK said in a statement.

Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia, Belarus and Ukraine were put under the IAAF watch-list last year due to a spike in doping cases after WADA declared the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) as non-compliant to the Anti-Doping Code.

The meeting that will be held in Eldoret on Wednesday morning will include training on the use of the Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS) systems.

The ADAMS is a web-based database management system that is available in multiple languages. It facilitates the sharing of information amongst relevant organizations and is designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the fight against doping in sport.

“The meeting will also include training the athletes on use of the ADAMS systems, to enable them update their whereabouts at all times so that no Kenyan gets a ban for whereabouts failures and missed tests.

“It is mandatory for invited athletes to attend the meeting failure of which may lead to their non-participation in the Trials for the World Championships,” the AK said.

Stained by a succession of doping incidences, Kenya’s image was cast in further bad light early April when its first Kenyan woman to win the Olympic marathon champion, Jemima Sumgong, failed a doping test.

Sumgong tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO in an out-of-competition test carried out by the IAAF.

Kenya could suffer yet another blow if Sumgong’s B sample is confirmed as positive, a situation that will subsequently mean a ban of up to four years.

Kenya’s middle- and long-distance success has been marred by doping cases involving elite athletes with officials estimating the number of positive tests at some 50 in the past four years.