Seb Coe: Kenya still under IAAF doping watch

IAAF President Lord Sebastian Coe maintains Kenya is among the five countries that are still being closely monitored to ensure their local anti-doping systems measure up to international standards in a bid to restore confidence in athletics.

Speaking at an international press conference following the two-day IAAF Council Meeting that concluded on Thursday, Coe stressed their stern action taken by the world governing body following the doping scandal accelerated the progress being made towards cleaning the sport internationally.

At the gathering, Coe could not provide a timeframe on how soon Russian athletes would resume international competition after the nation was banned for systematic doping last December with Kenya among the nations who faced the risk of joining them in being sanctioned.

The IAAF Athletes’ Commission chairman Rozle Prezelj and Rune Andersen who is the Independent Chairman of the Russian Doping Taskforce flanked the President and supported his efforts to push for adoption of the Integrity Unit at the IAAF that will be charged with the entire anti-doping process during the Council voting on Saturday.

Faced with the threat of Kenya’s venerated track and field athletes being banned from competition by the IAAF and International Olympics Committee ban ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics, the Government moved to pass law that criminalised doping besides giving the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) legal force to enforce the domestic system.

“I was very clear at the time, these were two very different challenges that we were facing. We were not just sitting there waiting for these issues to surface and cause us the kind of damage they have caused us in the past, that we were pro-active.

“Assessments were made not about our ability to test at international level but the question we asked were the domestic anti-doping programmes sufficiently robust enough?” the IAAF president said.

“In five cases we had concerns and the timelines we created for chance have in large part, produced changes and that was what the exercise was aimed at doing. Those five countries are still being monitored and monitored very closely and we will continue to do that.

“It was not about sanctions at that stage but it was clear that we needed to make sure that while we had confidence in our international testing, we weren’t confident that the anti-doping domestic systems both in and out competition were robust enough and that is what we were addressing and we will continue to do,” Coe expounded.

While there was reprieve for Kenya with ADAK continue with rolling out their activities to combat the vice that saw over 40 Kenyan athletes banned for doping since 2012, there was no clear indication that Russia who were pressing to have their ban overturned by spring will have their wish.

“I do not want the sport to return to the grotesque stories we have been waking up to. We need to pass the much needed reform proposals and it is the moment to be bold, not to be timid, clean athletes must know we are in their corner,” Coe, a former Olympics and world champion as well as a men 800m record holder emphasised.

Part of his four pillars of reform are aimed at redefining roles and responsibilities by ensuring much stronger area of representations for athletes in the leadership of federations besides tackling the damaging doping problem.

According to Coe, IAAF is embarking on creating programmes and pipelines to ensure it is utilising 50 percent of global talent in the sport besides establishing new and exciting events to engage with young people.

At the presser, Coe announced IAAF was happy with the progress of Nairobi 2017 IAAF World Under 17 Championships set for July next year.