Hmm....Former World jr champ Caleb Ndiku said on facebook that today is his bday, but official stats say bday is Oct 9th

The Countries of the Gulf Always used to change date of Birth of Kenyan and Ethiopian when they switch nationality.

I can say a story of 2003.

When Stephen Cherono and Albert Chepkirui switched their nationality going Qatar, I didn't know anything, because Stephen was able to maintain everything secret, with me too, till last minute.

We are in Zurich, the night before the meeting, and Stephen tells me "Tomorrow I run with another name for another Country". I told him "Don't joke with me, what are you speaking about ?" and he explained "I don't joke, one hour ago by fax the release from Kenyan Federation finally arrived, so I can run WCh for Qatar. My new name is Saaeed Saif Shaheen".

Next day, he won with 1/100 aginst Ezekiel Kemboi, and 10 days later became World Champion in Paris, winning the most thrilling race of steeple ever.

In the same Championships, Albert (who changed his name in Ahmed Hassan Abdullah) was 4th in 10000m.

Following their steps, many Kenyan of top level decided to change nationality, but this was not possible with Qatar, because everything between Kenya and Qatar was fruit of an official negotiation between the Minister of Interior of Qatar and the Minister of Sport of Kenya, and the Agreement was for two athletes only. For that reasons, many athletes started to have contacts with Bahrein.

Among these athletes, there were Nicholas Kemboi (at the end of 2003 able running 26'30"03, 4th all time) and James Kwalia (World Junior Record Holder of Mile, and 12'54" in 5000m while 19). I travelled with them to Bahrein, we met the officials of the Federation, they gave to the athletes a new name, and the day after we went back Kenya. This happened in October.

Two months later, there were not yet official news about the full change. At the end of December, I'm in the office of the manager Gianni Demadonna in Trento (he was their manager), and he told me "if the athletes have to compete, we need to know their new name and we need to have a copy of their new passport". So, from the office I wrote an e-mail to Bahrein federation, asking infos about this issue.

In one hour time, I received back all the info : new names, AND NEW DATE OF BIRTH : Nicholas from 1983 to 1987, James from 1984 to 1988. I sent another email, asking why they changed the date of Birth, and they immediately answered "So they can compete in the Junior Championships".

I was shocked by their stupidity. Here is not only the fact to be cheaters, is really a fact to be idiots. How can you change the official date of Birth of an athlete running 26'30", one of the 3 top in the World, with his official age, in his official passport, already well known in the Athletics World (and already, also for Nicholas, there were 3 years of difference between his real age and the official date in his kenyan passport) ?

So, I sent my last email, writing "thank you for making me understand you are a Federation of cheaters. For that reason, the athletes NEVER go to join you, and I personally NEVER can collaborate with a federation of cheaters".

This was a common procedure in the Arab Countries of the Gulf.

Also the athletes of Qatar where not correct, but for other reasons. Many Kenyan and Ethiopian went in Qatar for competing for Qatari Clubs, maintaining their old nationality. In Qatar, there are Club Championships based on 3 competitions for the different categories (senior including juniores, juniores including Youth, and Youth only). So, the clubs, having some referent in Kenya, go directly to change their date of Birth, using athletes of 23 years as junior for their championships.

When some of these athletes, after 2 years in some Club, was able to compete well, the Clubs themselves (every Club is, in some way, connected with some member of the Royal Family) went to change the nationality of the athletes, giving them a Qatari passport, in order to have again the possibility to put in the team other two kenyan / ethiopian, since the rule allows every Club to have a max of 2 strangers per category. Of course, when they became Qatari, and where among the best in the Country, they could join the National Team, using their Qatari Passport, that in this case had a fake date of Birth not because of a direct action of the Federation, but because the Clubs were cheaters for beating one another.

There is NO ONE AGE RECORD (Youth or Junior) in middle distance that is regular, looking at the real dates of Birth of the athletes. And I laugh when I read some comment about African athletes, based on their age and how much strong they are ALREADY SO YOUNG, because are all comments from somebody not knowing the reality.

The real problem is a political problem. Also IAAF knows African Youth are not Youth, and African Juniores are not juniores, but an official Passport is official document from the Government, and it's not possible to make official allegations against a Government, only against individuals.

Anyway, in the last years the situation changed, becoming now more regular. Bahrein has a new Federation, all the cheaters were fired, now they don't change the name of african athletes in arab name, and maintain the date of Birth of their kenyan / ethiopian passport (also because now in Kenya there is the possibility of double citizenship, not allowed some year ago).

In any case, one of the problem is that in the ministerial offices nobody has some knowledge about the importance of right infos in official documents.

Always about Shaheen, I can say another story : after winning his 2nd World Title in 2005, we looked for the US Visa. We went to the US Embassy in Doha, and, during the interview, the official asked him where he was born. Shaheen of course answered : in Kenya, and the officil, showing him his passport, again : so why here is written Place of Birth Doha? This document is not correct, you cant have the Visa. So, we asked the President of Qatari Federation to speak with Sheikh Tamim Al Tani, President of the QNOC, for changing his passport, and in two hours Shaheen had a new passport, with the same date of Birth he had in Kenya, since we discovered they changed the day and the month, maintaining the same year, because for them was something useless.

Conclusion : when you see a passport from Arab Countries, NEVER you have to think what is written is something correct, not Always because they want to cheat, but many times because they dont care. For them, the real date of Birth is not important.

Thank you so much Renato, your post are always welcome, and we love all the great stories you have to tell! It keeps all the fans engaged in the sport and gives them a good understanding of what's going on. I wish other coaches were willing to share w/ the public like you are, thanks!

And to respond to everyone: I don't really put a lot of emphasize on the World JR Champs. A) because many (not all) of the athletes end up peaking, and don't go on to top international and global races later on and B) even if all these Kenyans/Ethiopians are age cheats as you accuse them to be, FAST TIMES ARE FAST TIMES, no matter what age you get them at

So stop paying attention to age group records, and pay attention to top times... Gebrehewit ran 12:47 and set the WJR for 5k and many accused him of not being 18, okay? That's fine and all if you have your opinions, but does that take away from the fact that he can run a freaking 12:47 5k!? No...

Another scenario: lets say Elise/Alexa weren't around and Mary Cain (someone's age we know is legit) ran 4:13 barely breaking Hasay's 4:14 1500m HS record, we'd get all excited about that and that's fine, but she hasn't proven that she can run w/ the US's top and for all we know she could never improve on that 4:13 and we'd never hear her name again, BUT she ran 4:04.62 and finish 2nd at USA SR's, which let us know she was one of USA's top (REGARDLESS OF AGE)

Another scenario: that boy ran a 5:01 mile as a 10 year old and set a 10 year old mile record (which I'm sure many Kenyan kids can do that it just never get reported), but to be honest, I'm not going to get all that excited about it, why? Because people develop differently at different ages and I can understand why we have phenoms like him, but I want to see him progress over the next couple years, not at a 5:01 for the rest of his life

Conclusion: stop glorifying age group records, and junior champions, cause at the end of the day, if their times are fast then their times are fast

If a Kenyan/Ethiopians runs a really fast time at a really early age, don't waste wondering about their age, pay attention to their times

They may be suspect but I doubt much is going to change even when birth date accuracy is maintained in developing countries. If East African senior men and women dominate mid and long distance running, what is the probability that their juniors do not?

"I forgot my lie."

Octa wrote:

If East African senior men and women dominate mid and long distance running, what is the probability that their juniors do not?

This ^^^

Coach,

It is interesting that you mention 2002 and 2003, '03 was the year Alex Kipchirchir ran 3:31 as a junior. I have not heard anything from him in a long time, but I don't recall him running my faster than his PR has a junior. This is also around time I first started seeing old looking Qatary-Kenyan athletes running as juniors. In 2003 or 2004, there were 1 or 2 Qatary athletes who had already run on the Kenyan junior team with one DOB and was running back running juniors again under a different name with with a DOB that was 2 years earlier. That means there were 2 countries or athletics NGBs that knew these athletes was over age and did nothing. 2001 to 2004 where some of the worst years for age cheating. This is around the time when Bekele and Gebremariam were juniors and Ethiopia was starting to compete with Kenya for junior titles. To maintain their junior cross counntry junior dominance Kenya was putting forth junior athltes who were clearly many years too old. Btw, I have also dealt with the Al Tani family and I know they have their own way of doing things, but I also know what young Kenyans look like, I have been around quite a few.

In terms of my "comments from somebody not knowing the reality". You are correct, you know far better than I do. Kenyans are great on the senior level, which makes sense that they would be great junior as well. But, I watched the best Kenyan grade school kids race in the early years of the U.S. national high school team championships, what is now called NXN and they were very good. They dominated, albieit those races would have a little more competitive on the U.S. side if our top high school athlete had ran in that event back then. Those Kenyan kids that ran in the U.S. team champs looked young and they were very good, but not so good as to not be believable. What happened to those Kenyan H.S. school kids, why weren't some of them on the Kenyan junior national team? Why are so many Kenyan juniors peaking at suppposely 18/19? What I would expect to see is like Wilson Kipketer and David Rudisha who ran great times at St Patrick school and went on to set world records. So many of those Kenyan athletes from the early 2000s like Alex Kipchirchir and Cornelius Chirchir never better their PRs from when they were juniors. This is certainly not always the case, but I see it enough to make beleive these were grown men in their prime when they were anounced as 18 year olds. Btw, I watched supposely 18 year year Alex Kipchirchir beat Bernard Lagat in an anchor leg on a DMR at the Penn Relays and I thought this kids was going to set world records in a couple of years, but he never got much better.

With all of that said, I am aware of the economic realites in Kenyan and what a pro contract can mean for a young Kenyan athlete and their family. I am also aware of the double standard in that a 3:35 U.S. or European athlete complete in DL meets, but a 3:35 Kenyan can only do so if they are very young. And, I don't fault any athlete who don't know their true date of birth by not fault of their own, but it that is the case, don't compete in competitions where there other athletes do know their correct DOB and are perhaps several years younger.