20 athletes locked out from the Kenyan trials for avoiding testing

Thats a good start, but they should face 4 year bans as well.

Nothing to see here, just a small administrative error by some boys.

So Kenya once again showing that they are not complicit in a state run doping program?

Clearly there is a doping problem in Kenya, but also clearly it is not organised at state/governmental level (who are utterly incompetent rather than complicit)

So non compliance and 'avoiding' are two different things.

You can be non-compliant, without avoiding. Though people who avoid would still fall under non-compliance.

I think this policy will help limit bans of major championship competitors (which is embarrassing for any nation). I think they also would be better off tying the requirement to their ability to represent Kenya/ be eligible for selection period.

It looks like there are two different headlines here.

1- ADAK is actually starting to take testing it's top athletes seriously, both in and out of competition.

2- The percentage of athletes that are non-compliant is extremely high.

These are good baby steps, but the root problem is foreign $$ at races/meets that don't have testing for lets call them Unknown athletes. Yes, this testing makes it hard to dope and be a part of an intentional team, but it does nothing currently to stop the grassroots doping that's rampant amongst training groups.

Test that broad who wants to run a sub 4 mile. She has no shame. Yeah sure, she's obliterating the dopers while clean, that makes perfectly logical sense!

To be clear, these athletes were only even on the radar for testing because they/someone at some point put their names in as athletes with aspirations to make a Kenyan team.

"We received a list of 145 athletes from AK. We have been able to test more than 120 athletes. The remaining 20, we were not able to reach them as they did not give us their whereabouts or in some instances, we did not find them in the areas they had provided in their whereabouts."
Yahuma also revealed that the majority of those unreachable athletes had shown little intent to pursue qualification for the World Championships.
"Out of the 20, most have not shown their preparedness to be eligible or beat the qualification standards for Tokyo."
After doing that, they failed to fill out their whereabouts location and didn't attend AK Weekend meets.

Interestingly you of course don't mention that ADAK is fully funded, and hitting on their testing targets. That is after you insisted that ADAK wasn't testing athletes for months without evidence and that they weren't getting funded to test athletes (again without evidence). ADAK says they exceeded World Athletics' target of 3500 tests by 661 in fact for the 2024 year.

Source:

the-star.co.ke

ADAK clears 120 athletes for July trials ahead of Tokyo World Champs

@thestarkenya

Kenyan athletes eyeing Tokyo Worlds must undergo three surprise drug tests by August 29.

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And conveniently, none of these athletes are relevant threats to make the Worlds team. This publicity stunt is obviously designed to make it look like the Kenya government cares about the doping problem.

Just imagine if they started testing US athletes more what they would find

It would be an endless series of scandals. They start doping up their athletes from high school on.

I think this has been the general consensus for a while - a certainly a lot of stories I have heard coming out of Kenya don't point to their doping issues being a state run conspiracy a-la Russia, Spain in the 90's and the Eastern Bloc of the 80's.

I do think the reality is somewhere in between though. As in even though doping isn't sponsored or condoned, I'm just not sure there is much impetus to stop it. Then again I think that this is far larger issue in Kenya that would involve much better regulation and infrastructure around the medical profession with the biggest one being how easy it is to get your hands on certain drugs and who can get their hands on them. That is a far larger issue than just sports and one I don't believe (as you said) there is the competence or motivation to make happen.

When you have "doctors" handing out EPO from pickup trucks with tinted windows in the carpark of shopping centers in Nairobi, the problem would seem kind of obvious.

I have a friend who's a passably decent Kenyan runner and sports journalist. Doping there isn't organized like it was in Russia but he tells me loads of government and influential people are involved in athletes' doping and making money from it.

The rest will be protected, etc. They’re all cheats.

The Kenyan government didn't need to be as pro-active as Russia, Spain, or the GDR, because the financial incentives for mass doping were/are already sufficient. But as you imply, there isn't a great deal of difference between turning a blind eye to EPO being openly sold without prescription in every pharmacy in Iten, for example, and instructing coaches to dope athletes. Now, of course, Kenya is 'trying' to stop doping, but only with a gun effectively pointed at their head. Kenya has probably benefited more than Spain and Russia from doping and the sporting success it brings, in terms of raising its profile on the world stage, and increased tourism and investment that comes as a result.

Exactly!

Bravo to Athletics Kenya for showing no tolerance for whereabouts tomfoolery.

Haha.

Sure.

Whenever the US starts handing out four-year bans for whereabouts failures, Kenya should do the same.

(For now, this is the duration an American woman was banned for being caught with literal steroids in her system.)

It would be of interest to know if any of the 20 are from the Kalenja tribe or not. Kalenja tribe are from the Rift Valley and receive preferential treatment.

how many kenyans out of 100 no names in the middle of no where have any clue about whereabouts as a thing? have a clue about the forms?

sure there are lots of cheaters.

just sayin

You say turning a blind eye but there are links that many you yourself have shared of them busting those exact people. So you’re really having your cake and eating it too. Every time Kenya busts dopers or corrupt doctors you use it as both evidence that doping is rampant but also refuse to acknowledge that they are testing and catching dopers at a pretty high rate. It sounds like Trump line, if they stopped testing there’d be less COVID. Well Kenya tests a lot which is good and to be commended so stop pretending otherwise. It also is going to lead a lot of whereabouts failures, which would be more rampant everywhere if many countries actually tested randomly more than twice a year.

https://nation.africa/kenya/sports/athletics/indian-national-arrested-in-iten-over-banned-doping-substances-5030912

pulsesports.co.ke

Police Hunt Pharmacist Accused of Administering Banned Substances to Top Athletes

Pulse Sports

Authorities are searching for a Kenyan pharmacist who escaped a police raid amid investigations into illegal medical practices linked to athletes.

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tv47.digital

Iten: Pharmacist caught selling doping drugs to athlete - TV47 Digital

@tv47news

A multiagency team on Saturday, January 27 arrested an athlete and pharmacist in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County handling prohibited substances.

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