Christopher Kelsall: It's time to stop inviting Kenyan runners

Russia was a state-sponsored program & cover-up, I don't think there is any insinuation that the widespread doping problem in Kenya is supported by Athletics Kenya or the government.

I agree with the sentiment.

I hope the author reads this board, so that he can fix the following typos/errors:

1. Tigst Assefa ran 2:11:53 in Berlin, not London.

2. Chepngetich's personal best before running 2:09:56 was 2:14:18, not 2:04:18.

I don't think the article insinuates that at all.

The problem is obviously indifference in Kenya, but it ultimately achieves the same result; an uneven playing field.

Some nations are devoting time and resources to stringent OOC testing, and others (Kenya) are not. A ban would at least incentivize said governments into action, given that running is a cash-cow for the local economies.

A bit off-topic: I am (in general) for allowing every country to participate. Think that countries battling it out on the track/football field/whatever and/or in science/space is better than all out war. The Olympics for example, was and is a d**k measuring contest for big countries. Better to do it there than with guns. End.

This is the simple solution. The athletes, argents, and Kenya itself will lose money. Stop inviting them and the government will step in and end the problem.

Doesn't matter because there are way more Kenyan distance runners doping than there ever has been in Russia. And they have been coming over and effectively stealing prize money from road races for decades now with nothing done about it. If people from a nation are consistently cheating in competitions then they should not be allowed to enter the competitions. End of discussion.

Corrected.

This is why editors exist:

“Uganda borders Kenya. Kiplimo’s residence is located at a high altitude, and like Kenya, Uganda is a third-world nation. Therefore, athletes are similarly motivated for wins and records. The sport is purely transactional for them.”

What is this abomination of a paragraph in an article about Kenya?

Another hobbyjournalist, in the style of the JoBros.

Get rid of the lying agents and coaches who are looking to snipe dopers or intending on encouraging athletes to dope behind closed doors. They do this for financial profit.

Agree. However, Kenya has produced the huge pile of doping positives so there is concrete evidence to justify banning them. So I would ban Kenya and then start testing Uganda and Ethiopia. If they produce a pile of positives then ban them too.

"After 1.5 years, the government reneged on the deal"

What's the source of this?

You have zero understanding of what Africa and Africans are really like.

I have a friend in Iten who is pretty well connected. There isn't anything going on like there was in Russia but he tells me there is a tremendous amount of corruption that goes very high up, i.e, "important" people getting cuts of what athletes win. He's a journalist and once thought about exposing it but let it go because he thought he what he would most likely accomplish would be getting himself killed.

I thought Kenya's doping problem was incredibly rampant private doping, not state sponsored?

Totally agree. It doesn't matter if it's state sponsored, country sponsored, or individually done. IT'S A BIG PROBLEM. They drug cheat, age cheat, and who knows what else.

They are a mockery to the sport and are not needed. MANY records are held by doping or age cheating Kenyans. What is it going to take to get rid of this problem? Just ridiculous......

Stop worshiping EPO. It's not a panacea.

Ethiopia 1st, Kenya 3rd and Uganda 6th. The problem is not really testing, it is there are still plenty of athletes or proxies willing to dope or push illegal substances.

So there can be a few problems in doping:

1) A nearly non-existent testing system. It might surprise you but this more applies to Australia, Trinidad and Tobago and Spain whose national bodies barely test their athletes and we're either reliant on the AIU OR just blind faith that these are non-doping countries.

2) Rampant doping among athletes that gets caught. This is obviously the case in Kenya.

3) Rampant doping among athletes that doesn't get caught. This is where Kelsall and others conflate 2 and 3. They assume because 2 exists, 3 exists in all the athletes from those countries that don't get caught. The reality might indeed be that in a sophisticated doping scheme/program, 2 doesn't exist and yet 3 is almost universal.

You could look at numerous doping rings that need whistleblowers or new secret tests and methods etc. to get taken down.

It is possible Kelsall is right and all of these athletes like Kipchoge, Wanyonyi and Kipyegon ARE doping. Certainly if that is the case, they are managing to do it while facing more scrutiny in terms of tests than anywhere else. That's just a statistical fact.

They should all be banned, only way to solve the problem