Look through the facade, and you will see exactly what is happening. Counties like Kenya and Ethiopia have hundreds of world class athletes but they can only select three athletes to compete in each Event for each world championships or Olympics. There is a lot of money at stake if you manage to compete at such events, so people decide to switch countries to compete for the big payday. In the meantime they claim National records for their new country, for which they often have no deep roots or affiliations. Personally, I think it stinks. They should not be allowed to do this once they are adults (18 years) Lagat is a perfect example. I as an athlete, and fan of our sport will never consider his American records to be legitimate. I consider him to be a great Kenyan athlete, who perhaps doped, not unlike a lot a others at his level. He should have all other liberties attributable to immigrants, except for the ability to compete for our National team or set National records.
My opinion....