Renato Canova defends Federico Rosa, "(It) is not possible to control what they individually do."

Renato Canova wrote:

In the comment of Dubai Marathon, under the generic name of "Letsrun", I read the following phrase, regarding Ruth Chepngetich :

"Chepngetich is certainly a force to be reckoned with moving forward. According to tilastopaja.eu, she’s run four career marathons and all four have gone well (3 wins, slowest time of 2:22:59). At the half, she’s won 5 of her career 10 half marathons but she was just 13th at World Half and 4th at Copenhagen last year; her half pb is 66:19. The only negative is she’s represented by Federico Rosa, who has represented the two biggest EPO cheats in marathon history in Rita Jeptoo and Jemima Sumgong (plus Asbel Kiprop)".

I don't like the current way to attack the management of Rosa, and in direct (or not direct) way Nike.

Of course, Rosa had the higher number of doped athletes, during the last 4-5 years, and some of them were on the top of the World (Jemima Olympic Champion, Asbel Kiprop Olimpic and World Champion, Rita Jeptoo winner of several Majors).

This provokes suspicions about the management : but, how already I had the opportunity to explain in the past, to look at top management as responsible of the doping of individual athletes is something out of the reality.

Federico Rosa is the manager having the higher number of training camp in Kenya. Many of those training camp include one or two athletes of high level only, plus groups of young runners, still at the beginning of their development.

Rosa organized camps in the most part of Kenya : near the two main camps (Kaptagat and Kapsabet), there is the historical camp of Kapsait (at 3100m of altitude), where Brigid Kosgei trains, and something in Kericho, from where Ruth Chepngetich started, before moving to Ngong where she trains without any coach following her training.

Already in 2012 Federico Rosa had some doubt about some of the athletes of Kapsabet camp, and decided, after speaking with IAAF and WADA, to test the athletes of the management, before entering them in some marathon.

Since some test produced doubtful values, Rosa decided to remove those athletes from the management, but for this action was temporary banned by Athletic Kenya, for decision of the Chairman, Isaiah Kiplagat.

Under a logic point of view, a management with a lot of top athletes can't VOLUNTARY risk to spoil its image administering doping to the athletes, and this is something valid for ALL the top managements (Demadonna, Global, Golazo, Pace, Volare, etc...).

However, when the athletes are in all the territory, is not possible to control what they individually do, if there is not a centralized organization. The centralized organization is something that only Global (the Company of Jos Hermens) choose, with the two main camps in Kaptagat (Patrick Sang) and Iten (John Litei), with another camp, smaller, in Keringet (built around Faith Kipyegon for women, and Geoffrey Kirui for men).

In the case of centralized organization, it's possible to educate the athletes always living and training in the camp. This is one of the secrets of Eliud Kipchoge, and now of the new athletes in Iten (Eric Kiptanui, Daniel Kipchumba, Josphat Boit together with Ronald Kwemoi and his young brother).

But, when the athletes are alone, and the coach look at their training only, they can easily involved in wrong ideas, and in some area the idea of doping at the base of the training can become dangerous.

For example, Rosa was fully confident in the coach Talam, as responsible of the athletes in Kapsabet. Talam is a good coach, with good knowledge about training (for marathon) and psychology, and Rosa was happy about his activity.

However, Talam himself was the one believing EPO could give big advantage, and gave the substance to his wife (Jemima Sumgong) and some other athlete of the camp, without any connection with the management. This because wanted to show his ability to produce top athletes, till to win Olympics.

When there were the hearings against Federico Rosa and Claudio Berardelli, following the allegation of Noah Busienei (Rita's husband), the athletes (Rita and Jemima) explained that there was no involvement of coach and manager, and that did everything alone (with pathetic and riciculous excuses, full of lies, that at the end produced other years of ban...).

What we can say, knowing the activity in Kenya on the ground, is that for a management is not possible to control, and to know, what the athletes can do, if not in a training camp where the coach is always with them.

Against Rosa, there are "suspicion" from the belly of some people, but the facts are very much different, and IAAF and WADA well know everything.

So, it's time to finish to involve managements (and specifically Rosa) in the situation of doping in Kenya. Of course, more athletes a management has, more risk of doping there is, but we have to remember that, in the athletics of today, if there are no managers, the athletes never can compete at international level.

Also AK now started an educational program with young athletes (in 2020 the World Junior Championships shall be in Nairobi), explaining why no doping, for the following reasons :

a) It's against the ethic

b) It's dangerous for the health

c) It's a risk for the career

d) The effects are very poor, or nothing, if there is proper training

These kind of clinic are in every Kenyan area, and the level of controls is now very high (probably higher than in any other Country).

So, it's true that in the past the level of controls was poor (also if the number of OOC tests was always high, from 2010, but not at charge of the local antidoping), but now the Federation started a plan for having more control to athletes, coaches and managers, who have to show their specific degrees for being authorized to work with Kenyan athletes.

There are very wrong ideas about the Kenyan situation, today, and it's better than, before writing something not true, fruit of speculations connected with the past problems, the authors can try to know the current reality, in a Country with very fast evolution.

Kiwi kitanzi wrote:

Not really. Kiprop's situation is complicated by the fact that the testers(and by extension WADA) violated the protocols. By taking bribes, which they have admitted, the tests they conducted are null and void since they failed the standards set. Since they participated in the viasco, WADA lost the moral and integrity and transparency not only to conduct the test but also to provide results that can be trusted. The logic is, if they could take bribes from Kiprop, there is a possibility, however small, that they could have SPIKED the sample and cause it to test positive. The only thing we all know for sure is that the samples came back positive but we are not sure of what happened from the time the sample was provided until the time the sample were tested. Kiprop claimed that after giving the sample and before it was sealed, he stepped out of the room to get some money for the sample-takers. If that is true, anything could have happened at that point in time before the sample was sealed. What I see is Kiprop getting readmitted back into competitions immediately or serving no more than one year backdated to when the test was done. It is sad but the whole blame goes to WADA.

Renato Canova wrote:

The solution is not easy. Rosa was the first person investing a lot of money for marathon runners in Kenya. When he started (as coach) in 1991 (his first Kenyan champion was Moses Tanui), in Kenya marathon runners didn't exist. He was at the base of the development of the discipline in Kenya, and, because the increased successes in big marathons, when decided to create his own management, was also able to find sponsors (at first Fila, after Nike) investing in his project in massive way.

For that reason, he explored the most part of Kenya, not only the area around Eldoret, and was the only source of support for the most part of Kenyan runners, always without organization. He was able to give basic equipment (shoes and running equipment) to hundreds of runners who didn't have any thing, so the area of intervention of Rosa was very wide, practically covering all the Country.

For that reason, for his management it's difficult to centralize everything, how for example it's possible for the management of Global, that when started in Kenya immediately choose as referent Patrick Sang.

So, the big challenge for Rosa is : Is it better to centralize, in order to have more control, in this way penalizing a lot of athletes, still very young, that can have at home the support of the management (economical and for facilities), or to continue to help everywhere young athletes, creating local camps that, of course, can't be followed from the management in proper way ?

Yesterday, during the Discovery Kenya cross, in the leading positions of the race for juniores (girls), we could see a lot of youn athletes already with Rosa's management, coming from different part of Rift Valley : Kapsait, Kericho, Kapsabet, Kabernet, Nakuru, Ngong.... If the management decides for more centralized organization, 80% of these athletes lose the opportunities to become athletes of professional level.

Is this good, or is this bad ? How many managers there are, in the world, with the will (and the economic possibility) to invest in young runners, supporting their schools and creating small local camps ? And how many possibilities there are for a young talented athletes to become professional, if there is not a management working for his future ?

The management has many "apples", and some is not good. This can happen when you are able to produce many apple.

But is it better to remove the bad apples from the basket, or to quit to produce apple ?

P.S. (about Asbel Kiprop) : I'm not sure about his situation, and frankly I don't have a logic explanation. Something strange happened : on one side, if in his samples there was EPO, it means that he took. On the other side, knowing he could be tested that day, since he was informed about the test by one of the doctors (friends) the day before, if he knew to have some problem, could very easily avoid the control, going in the village, or not opening the door, in this way having a missing test only. So, this situation is really something mysterious.

The naked truth wrote:

Renato Canova wrote:

The solution is not easy. Rosa was the first person investing a lot of money for marathon runners in Kenya. When he started (as coach) in 1991 (his first Kenyan champion was Moses Tanui), in Kenya marathon runners didn't exist. He was at the base of the development of the discipline in Kenya, and, because the increased successes in big marathons, when decided to create his own management, was also able to find sponsors (at first Fila, after Nike) investing in his project in massive way.

For that reason, he explored the most part of Kenya, not only the area around Eldoret, and was the only source of support for the most part of Kenyan runners, always without organization. He was able to give basic equipment (shoes and running equipment) to hundreds of runners who didn't have any thing, so the area of intervention of Rosa was very wide, practically covering all the Country.

For that reason, for his management it's difficult to centralize everything, how for example it's possible for the management of Global, that when started in Kenya immediately choose as referent Patrick Sang.

So, the big challenge for Rosa is : Is it better to centralize, in order to have more control, in this way penalizing a lot of athletes, still very young, that can have at home the support of the management (economical and for facilities), or to continue to help everywhere young athletes, creating local camps that, of course, can't be followed from the management in proper way ?

Yesterday, during the Discovery Kenya cross, in the leading positions of the race for juniores (girls), we could see a lot of youn athletes already with Rosa's management, coming from different part of Rift Valley : Kapsait, Kericho, Kapsabet, Kabernet, Nakuru, Ngong.... If the management decides for more centralized organization, 80% of these athletes lose the opportunities to become athletes of professional level.

Is this good, or is this bad ? How many managers there are, in the world, with the will (and the economic possibility) to invest in young runners, supporting their schools and creating small local camps ? And how many possibilities there are for a young talented athletes to become professional, if there is not a management working for his future ?

The management has many "apples", and some is not good. This can happen when you are able to produce many apple.

But is it better to remove the bad apples from the basket, or to quit to produce apple ?

P.S. (about Asbel Kiprop) : I'm not sure about his situation, and frankly I don't have a logic explanation. Something strange happened : on one side, if in his samples there was EPO, it means that he took. On the other side, knowing he could be tested that day, since he was informed about the test by one of the doctors (friends) the day before, if he knew to have some problem, could very easily avoid the control, going in the village, or not opening the door, in this way having a missing test only. So, this situation is really something mysterious.

The problem is not the producing of many apples. Its more common that the apple trees of this kind often have tree diseases.