Legend Tanui calls for probe on Bahraini star Jebet switch

Former world champion and two-time Boston Marathon winner, Moses Tanui, has fired the country a warning over the alarming number of gifted Kenyan born athletes seeking to represent foreign nations at the expense of the motherland due to mismanagement of talent.

Kenyans were dismayed when teenager, Ruth Jebet, won the women 3000m steeplechase gold for Bahrain before shattering the world record last week to add insult to injury.

Eunice Kirwa, also won the Gulf State women marathon silver at Rio 2016 while Paul Kipkemoi Chelimo took the men 5000m silver for the USA with Athletics Kenya (AK) boss, Lt. Gen (Rtd) Jack Tuwei saying 36 Kenyan-born athletes competed for other nations at the 31st edition of the Olympics.

On Tuesday, Jebet and Kirwa were feted by Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa during the grand reception for the team that took part in Rio where goodies that would have made their former compatriots turn green with envy were splashed by the oil rich kingdom.

In contrast, Kenya’s heroes from Rio 2016 who braved maltreatment at the hands of National Olympics Committee-Kenya (Nock) officials to mint the country’s best ever performance at the quadrennial Games returned to a whimper with the fallout from the scandal in Brazil overshadowing their achievement.

Speaking to Citizen Digital on the sidelines of the Brookside East Africa Secondary Schools Games in Eldoret, Tanui, the Tokyo 1991 Worlds men 10000m champion, tipped Jebet to rule her discipline for the next decade, denying Kenya glory in what is a worrying trend.

Last Saturday, the 19 year-old obliterated the previous standard set by disgraced Russian, Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of 8:58.81 set at the Beijing 2008 Olympics by a massive six seconds barely a fortnight after scorching the field to Rio 2016 gold.

“This talk has been there for some time now but I think Jebet’s case is special and should provoke a serious reaction in Kenya. Few people knew her before the Rio Olympics and how she moved to Bahrain remains a mystery to many.

“There are many more unknown stars in Kenya who could end up surprising us in other national colours if we don’t take control of what I call ‘human trafficking’,” Tanui lamented.

“If she is only 19, it is easy to conclude she was ‘sold’ when she was Under 18 or so. A smart person who knew she would be in the cold for three years if she represented Kenya before switching to Bahrain must have been behind the move,” the 1993 Stuttgart 10000m Worlds silver medallist charged.

Tanui whose undying love for the red, green and black reflected when he famously attacked Ethiopia’s legend, Haile Gebrselassie, with a shoe after an altercation in Stuttgart called for authorities to urgently look into the talent drain before it explodes into a full blown crisis.

“It is good for her that she is making money that for sure, she would not have made if she was here, but the controversy lays in how the deal to represent her current nation was secured. May be there are other Jebets in waiting to whip us in the upcoming world events,” he warned.

He opined the kind of rough treatment of Kenyan athletes were subjected at the Rio 2016 Olympics and desperate parents keen to chance their fortunes through the talent of their sons and daughters were some of the compelling factors for citizenship change.

“Even as I advocate for proper monitoring of who and how manages our young athletes, it is equally important to rethink the incentives we give to them. You don’t starve a cow that can see leafy nappier grass across the farm,” the retired marathon ace now an avid golfer stressed.

Ironically, both world records in the event known as ‘Kenya’s Race’ are held by the country’s exported talent with Qatari Saif Shaheed Shaheen, born Stephen Cherono, holding the men’s standard.

Shaheen denied Ezekiel Kemboi the 2003 and 2005 world titles but was barred by through an application by Nock from taking part in the 2004 Athens Olympics where he would have barring disaster, went on to beat the Kenyan great the gold medal.

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kenya olympics athletics Ruth Jebet Moses Tanui Rio 2016

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