Renato Canova wrote:
Caleb was born in 1992, and in Kenya everybody born before 2003 didn't have the official registration of the birthday in the Hospital, which started to be a must after that date.
Children didn't have ID till when they needed for the first time (for the most part of athletes, when they had to compete in the National School Championships, where every participant has to show an official document).
So, when they needed, they had to go to the office of the district for asking the Birth certificate. The official asked "in which class in the school are you ?", and, according to the class, they gave the official year of Birth. The day was the day of the request.
But in many cases, when we speak about boys living in small villages on the mountains, they didn't start primary schools when 6y old, but when 8 or 10 (when, fo example, the school was very far from thei house). This fact explains why, in the most part of cases, in their passport the age is not correct.
The situation for new generations now is completely different, and I think that everybody born in the last 10 years has perfect documents, very correct, like in Europe and Northern America.
Also in Asia (China, for example), we often find the same situation. We need to know the reality of small villages without any official structure, and without specific facilities and equipments, for understanding this diffused situation, before thinking everybody is a cheater because of the possibility to win medals in athletics cheating about the age.
Coach Canova,
I agree with most of what you stated, especially the situation in China, which most people don't know about. In China, Cuba and the DR for example, when athletes compete in global junior competitions, in many cases, they are several years older than what's listed, even when a birth certificate does exist. In terms of Kenya, I disagree that starting in 2003 every athlete will have an official registration of the birth, there are several reasons why everybody born in the last 10 years will not have 'perfect documents'. A better statement would be that the DOB situation will be much improved. The problem currently is that most of the top Kenyan junior athletes did not compete in the National School Championships or any age group youth competitions where your age can at least be approximated. The top young athletes are training in elite groups along side Olympians and are placed on the Kenyan junior team with no knowledge of their true age...that's cheating. For junior competitions, Kenya should only use athletes with a certified DOB or at the very least have some method of approximating their age and if you can't do that, don 't allow them to compete against athletes you are the proper age.
What is ironic is that age cheating is taken very serious in Kenya when it comes to grade school and age group competitions, but everyone turns a blind eye when comes to international competitions. The fact is, yourself, coaches, agents and even KAA have been -or should have been well aware that certain Kenyan athletes were too old to compete as a junior. If I can determine definitively that a certain athlete is over age living thousands of miles away, people working with this athlete should have no problem doing so. World jr cross, track competitions and the records are almost a joke because of age cheating and I don't mean not knowing someone's age...I am talking about cheating.
In 2003 or 2004, I was coaching a Kenyan athlete whose listed DOB was 24, he could have been older than that, he had a brother who he stated was one year younger. He wanted me to help bring his brother to the U.S. This athlete, the one year younger brother of the 24 year old, competed in the WJr XC and track. At the very least, this athlete was 23; mistaking an athlete's by age 4 years is not a mistake...that is cheating.
Under pressure from the IAAF, for the last 2 years KAA has excluded a few athletes from the Kenyan Jr trails. Those were only athletes with a beard and a residing hair lines per se, basically they excluded athletes in their late 20s, but I suspect athletes in their early 20s still competed. Kenyan age cheating is not just unfair to the rest of the world, but is also unfair to all those Kenyan National School Champs who are denied the opportunity the represent their country because of an athlete several years older. The Kenyan and the African kids in general are very good, they will still dominate global youth and junior competitions; however, perhaps we want see any 18 year olds running 12:47 5000s or 3:30 1500s.