40 Kenyan Athletes in 1st out of Competition Blood Tests in Home Country

More evidence that the inconsistency in world wide doping testing renders the entire system worthless. This is the first time Kenyans have been tested out of competition? How is this in any way acceptable? Why are they even allowed to run? How about other east African nations? Also, given the remote location of the training camp there's simply no way the testers would be able to "sneak up" on these athletes, rendering these tests meaningless. This is a farce.

There must be some mistake because PEDs don't work on East Africans.

They have been tested out of competition in Kenya but urine only

Does anyone know what proportion of tests are blood and what proportion urine in other countries?

They have been tested out of ocmpetition because that's how John Ngugi got his ban- he refused to be tested when they showed up at his door.

It was a crazy story and was all about cultural misunderstanding- showing up to someone's property and demanding a urine sample. Crazy situation.

d'voidoffunk wrote:

More evidence that the inconsistency in world wide doping testing renders the entire system worthless. This is the first time Kenyans have been tested out of competition? How is this in any way acceptable? Why are they even allowed to run? How about other east African nations? Also, given the remote location of the training camp there's simply no way the testers would be able to "sneak up" on these athletes, rendering these tests meaningless. This is a farce.

Agree 100%.

I've been saying for years on these message boards that Kenyan elites don't get tested anywhere near as often as other athletes from other parts of the world, and I have been shouted down on numerous ocassions; mainly by Ventolin! I wonder why? Oh yes, he's also Kenyan.

How can there be any confidence in the dope testing procedures in place when there has been little or no transparency from the governing bodies in decades?

Surely it now puts the whole "African emergence" in the mid '90's into question. We've been told for years that they are just more talented, never trained seriously before that time, were too poor, etc, while being assured that 1) they were tested the same and 2) they didn't need drugs anyway! Now we're being told that after almost 20 years of dominating middle and long distance athletics, they have NEVER tested any Kenyans in their home country before!!!! Inconceivable.

When did Diack take over presidency of the IAAF? Was there some kind of unwritten decision to help increase Kenyan and African participation in the sport back in the 90's?

This whole inconsistency needs addressing at the very top. The IAAF should be forced to explain why no testing has taken place up to this date.

How does drug testing work for foreign athletes training in Kenya?

Invite all internationally competing athletes to participate in a blood passport profile program. Then give all of those athletes taking up the invite a "Mr. Clean" badge to display on their uniform. It won't be long before anyone without the badge is questioned why and is pressured to join by their sponsors and fans.

It would only take one athlete with the backbone to start then momentum wil start taking off.

Doesn't mean crap. LA passed 10,000 tests. Rupp passed and still gets a pass.

Cheaters Cheaters Cheaters wrote:

Doesn't mean crap. LA passed 10,000 tests. Rupp passed and still gets a pass.

I doubt any East African runner, or any runner for that matter, has the kind of power, pull and influence over our sport that Lance had over biking.

WADA is a joke and a complete sham

they let coaches know all the parameters wa ahead of time

it's as bad as MLB and NFL

Cheaters Cheaters Cheaters wrote:

Doesn't mean crap. LA passed 10,000 tests. Rupp passed and still gets a pass.

Ok, but at least there is a small chance of getting caught, even if the testing isn't 100% effective, if you are being regularly tested out of season/competition. There is NO chance of any Kenyan being caught if they're not tested in the first place!

If i were an elite US or European athlete I'd be spitting blood at this news. Why should an athlete from country A have to specify where they are for an hour everyday, weeks or months in advance for random testing, while athletes from country B have a free reign to train at altitude all year round at home without any fear of being tested!?

With LA, although I haven't seen the interview, wasn't his passing of tests more.to do with inside corruption and collusion?

I don't think Rupp is on anything. There are a lot more guys ahead of him on the 5 & 10k lists who have a lot more reason to be skeptical of.

Blood testing is invasive and ridiculous.

There is no point to it at all, except to perpetuate the drug testing hypocrisy that keeps promoting the drugs.

d'voidoffunk wrote:

This is the first time Kenyans have been tested out of competition?

Learn first, post later.

This is not the first time they have been subject to "out of competition" testing. This is the first time they have been subject to out of season testing.

Many Kenyan runners live and train in Europe June-August, and yes they are randomly tested at home through this time. This is not done in the context of a specific meet, therefore "out of competition."

Out of season testing is different. It's not a complicated concept.

The main factor limiting out of season testing in Iten, Eldoret, Kapsabet, Kaptagat or Ngong Hills for that matter, has been WADA heel-dragging on the issue of getting samples to Switzerland in under 36 hours. This is obviously quite possible; I'd recommend any of the multiple daily flights out (the first-class cabins of which WADA officials are quite familiar).

So you attack Rupp, and defends Kenyans.

Okay, the bias is clear.

These tests will not nail anyone. That's not the objective. These test will establish baseline profiles that will provide the data for comparison during the upcoming racing season. Athletes will now need to show up for those races with the same "blood" that they have right now, meaning those last minute top-ups that they've been using to supplement months of clean training at altitude are off the table for this season. Very good move by WADA.

ghrp-6 wrote:

How does drug testing work for foreign athletes training in Kenya?

My guess is that North American athletes go to Kenya to train so they can can dope and stay away from drug testers.

Would love to know which N.A. athletes spend time there training.

deanouk wrote:

I've been saying for years on these message boards .....

Maybe you should get off the message boards a little more?

deanouk wrote:

Surely it now puts the whole "African emergence" in the mid '90's into question. We've been told for years that they are just more talented, never trained seriously before that time, were too poor, etc, while being assured that 1) they were tested the same and 2) they didn't need drugs anyway! Now we're being told that after almost 20 years of dominating middle and long distance athletics, they have NEVER tested any Kenyans in their home country before!!!! Inconceivable.

Seriously; I mean, its not as if we have any reason to imagine that Africans might be able to run, on average, considerably better than non-Africans, eh? Look at the dominance of Europeans in the rest of track? When's the last time any non-white person won a 100m sprint? 200m? 400m? Why should Africa produce better distance runners when clearly white folks rule the shorter running events? Why might anyone actually think Africa might produce better middle and long distance runners when everyone knows white people are so intrinsically superior?

Have you ever watched .. take your pick .. the NBA? the NFL? Professional boxing? The NCAA Track Championships? Any major high school track meet in the US? Less than 10% of the population and African-Americans completely dominate those sports. And as much as some people find it incredulous, I suspect that's more because of the "African" part of their heritage and less due the "American". But that might be just my own wacky thinking.

Honestly - It would be more surprising if a consistent pattern of world dominance in middle and long distance running did NOT emerge from some region in Africa; regardless how much your love of all things Coe might call you to deny it.

Don't patronize me. There were dozens of black athletes competing and winning at a variety of distances back in the 60's, 70's and 80's. Some were dominant, e.g Nehemiah, Moses, etc, but non Africans could still compete. Then we get this sudden breakthrough in events from 800 upwards at a time when a non testable endurance drug emerges (the 90's) , where Africans are knocking dozens of seconds of existing world records at a rate exponentially greater than predicted rates of world record progression. And this wasn't just one outlier but several in several different events. And none of those times/standards set then are within reach of the current crop of runners from 1500 upwards.

It's no different to a group of Chinese women suddenly breaking world records at the drop of a hat. And these were world records that most already believed tainted! Or do you believe that this was just another example of a "natural" progression in a specific racial group?

Not to mention how dozens of adolescent kids at St Patrick's school would hold their own at our NCAA Div I National Championships. Do people really think that they can administer drugs to so many kids without word getting out? I say no. They have the right combination of muscle fiber type, body type, hard working community that is passionate and supportive of running.

The likelyhood of systematic doping in Africa does not add up, and it is not hard to believe that Africans can outperform caucasions because of body type alone.