Some day ago I (and some manager with many Kenyan athletes in his management) received a letter from Kyle Barber, Intelligence & Out-of-Competition Testing Coordinator, IAAF Medical & Anti-Doping Department, that I put at the knowledge of all the LR posters.
“Dear Renato, please could you spread amongst your athletes in Kenya the name of Hissein Hibre Egal. This man has been pretending to be a Doping Control Officer, and contacting athletes to try and conduct a Doping control on them.
He first call the athletes to arrange the test, saying he will come the following day. He calls from the number : +254 727 904 727.
He may also pretend to be an agent or coach, and sometimes works with two accomplices.
Please note : this individual has nothing to do with the IAAF, WADA, or any other testing or Anti-Doping body.
If you learn of him attempting to contact any of your athletes, please let me know.
Kind regards
Kyle
HQ Tel : +377 93 10 88 88â€
How did this cheater act ? He called some athlete of 2nd level by phone (so there was somebody giving him the number of the athlete), fixing the appointment for a urine test the next day.
When he met the athlete, he explained could immediately have the result of the urine analysis using a fake machine.
Few minutes later, he went to the athlete, telling confidentially “I’m sorry, but you are positive to…. (naming some steroid that sometime it’s possible to find in normal medicines in Kenya). You have to be banned for two years, but I can cover your positivity if you give me 2000 USD that I use for cancelling your name from the data baseâ€.
Of course, this tactic could work with athletes who never had any test in their life, since the top runners usually have urine tests, not only after the races, but also Pre-Races and OOC, so well know the procedures legally used.
This man (or, better, this organization) abused of the ignorance of the athletes in the specific material of anti-doping, and of their low level of education in the most part of cases.
But, 4 days ago, he did a mistake. He used the same tactic with an athlete who perfectly knew how the system works, who is a member of Police in Kenya. This athlete called his colleagues, and they went to arrest the cheater, who now is in jail.
This is what several times happens in Kenya, and all the banned athletes speaking for explaining the system (including Ronald Kipchumba, who was caught for EPO after winning Linz Marathon, and we know where he took this EPO : from a pharmacy in Iten where the pharmacist is his “friend of drinkingâ€, who told he could support him without any risk in order to improve his best of 2 minutes) were abused by “professional cheaters†using introduce themselves in the way Kyle Barber explained above.
I can be the whitness that the OOC tests in Kenya (urine) are carried out following all the rules, being everytime done without any previous contact with the athletes.
The problem is the update of whereabouts, using the ADAMS system.
Do you really suppose all the Kenyan athletes in the whereabouts system are able to do personally everything using their computer ? Obviously that’s not the reality, so they need to update their position, every time they move, speaking by phone with the management, which is the practical actor for informing IAAF of some change in the window.
For that reason, sometimes the Anti-Doping control in Kenya can be done in a time of the day different from the one of the official window.
For example, the most part of athletes go on the track on Tuesday (this is not my system), and the officials of Anti-Doping reach the track of Chepkoilel or of Kamarin, directly taking samples from the athletes that IAAF put in the list for that week.
Put in your mind that the weekly deadline for testing the athletes in the list is on Friday, and that in this way the controls are carried out BEFORE the official date (this is very much different from a test carried out AFTER the purposed day by IAAF), so the effect of surprise is always effective.
Now, for answering to Trollism about marathon runners of 2:06-2:07 that are not tested, we need to know how deep is the field of Kenyan runners.
We can see the situation of Kenyan runners during the season 2015 :
MEN (Marathon)
Under 2:07 : 17
Under 2:08 : 31
Under 2:09 : 55
Under 2:10 : 85
MEN (HM)
Under 60:00 : 22
Under 60:30 : 59
WOMEN (Marathon)
Under 2:25 : 11
Under 2:26 : 15
Under 2:27 : 20
Under 2:28 : 27
Under 2:30 : 31
WOMEN (HM)
Under 68:00 : 5
Under 69:00 : 17
Under 70:00 : 32
All these athletes can go abroad winning good prizes in road races.
However, there is no way that, also in Countries where the National Antidoping Agency works very well, athletes not in top 10 in the national lists can be tested OOC, for the cost of every test.
WADA, IAAF and every National Agency prefer to use this money for testing the best in the World (WADA and IAAF) or the best in the Country (National Agency), than to test not-elite athletes.
These are subjected at the normal test AFTER the race, and this is all it’s possible to do.
So, if we have an efficient National Antidoping Agency in Kenya, what can change ?
Nothing about the top runners in the World (in fact, Rita Jeptoo was caught in an OOC test in Kenya), because they are already, and always, tested, and the most part have their BP normally working (and without any suspicion of doping).
Very much more about the athletes of lower level, but not because of OOC tests : because, having money for working, the Kenyan Antidoping Agency can (and must) carry out tests in ALL the road races in Kenya (actually only 2 or 3 have a final antidoping test), and this can be a strong deterrent for all the runners using doping for the first goal to improve their performances in the domestic competitions (only after showing the possibility of a good level they look for competing abroad).
About the possibility to ban Kenya from OG, this is a total bullshit.
Personally, I think this threat has the goal to stimulate the Kenyan Government to invest money in order to create a well working system of antidoping in Kenya, and I think this policy well worked, if yesterday William Ruto, speaking with media, said the Government decided to enhance of other 500 million shillings (about 5 million dollars) the contribution for antidoping in Kenya.
The only thing is to wait and see.