Act against doping nations such as Kenya, petitioners tell World Athletics

Former international running stars and respected coaches, including some from South Africa, are among those petitioning World Athletics (WA) to step up the fight against doping and ban countries that notch up more than 10 positive tests in a calendar year.

For former South African Mark Plaatjes, who won the 1993 world marathon title running for the US, and Norwegian Ingrid Kristiansen, the 1987 world 10,000m champion and former world marathon record-holder, the main target is Kenya, perennial offenders.

WA, its athletics integrity unit (AIU) and the World Anti-Doping Agency say they have stepped up the fight against East African cheating, but the petitioners are not convinced.

The petition, signed by more than 600 people and which organisers say was sent to WA president Sebastian Coe and the AIU without a response, calls for:

• the disclosure and suspension of coaches and agents linked to athletes failing dope tests;
• enhanced testing, particularly in East Africa;
• reporting back on enhanced testing on a half-yearly basis; and
• to immediately suspend all athletes from competition for the balance of a calendar year from any country that has more than 10 of its athletes test positive in that year.

They are also taking issue with the rapid manner in which WA is ratifying Kenyan world records, such as the 2hr 09min 56sec women’s world mark set by Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago in October last year.

They believe that record is suspect.

“It’s speculation, but if you look at the performance vs how she would have placed in the Chicago Marathon — 11th in the men’s division — you have to start to wonder,” said Peter Eriksson, the former Olympic and Paralympic coach of Great Britain who is spokesperson for the anti-doping activists. 

For them the suspicion is no different to journalist David Walsh’s questioning of Lance Armstong’s Tour de France victories despite there being no positive tests at the time. It later emerged Armstrong had doped.

“With the amount of positive tests Kenya and Ethiopia have, is any one of them clean?

“They don’t have the proper procedure for testing them on the [same] regular basis as you have in [areas such as] UK, Europe, Canada,” said Eriksson.

He recounted an incident in 2013 when Canadian athletes training in Kenya were given notice of a few days by anti-doping officials before out-of-competition tests, which are supposed to be conducted without forewarning.

Several Kenyan athletes said they couldn’t make it and were told that wasn’t a problem.

“This was in 2013, but I don’t see much has changed,” he told TimesLIVE.

The WA, claiming it never received the petition, said in a written response that Coe had created the AIU to step up the fight against doping. “The AIU is largely considered the gold standard in sport in regards to integrity and anti-doping,” said WA.

“Since the creation of the AIU, there has been a focus on East African countries, in particular Kenya, where the AIU has been working closely with Athletics Kenya, Anti-Doping Kenya, Wada and the Kenyan government to help combat doping issues in their country.

“These efforts have proven successful, resulting in a string of positive doping cases which shows authorities are taking the matter seriously. The Kenyan government also announced an investment of $5m [R92.85m] per year for five years in 2022 to dedicate the appropriate amount of funding to this important matter.”

WA added Kenya remained a category A country, where the AIU requires stronger anti-doping measures from national federations.

“That we are catching those athletes reflects the effectiveness of the AIU, without a strong AIU we wouldn't be able to catch them.”

A Wada report showed that between 2004 and 2018 a total of 138 Kenyans failed doping tests and of those 126 came from track and field.

The AIU site lists a total of 126 Kenyans now serving doping bans, with most committing infractions from 2021 onwards. India is ranked second on 120.

Kenya has won 117 Olympic medals in track and field since 1964 while India has landed only four in total.

Russia was third on 69, with many of its athletes being banned before Russia was suspended outright because of doping offences nearly a decade ago. China follows on 29 and Turkey on 22.

Then comes Italy (19), South Africa (17), Ukraine (16), US (15) and Ethiopia and Morocco on 14.

Wada said it was focusing on East African countries. “Wada has held and expressed concerns about the state of anti-doping in East African athletics. We take the doping practices there seriously,” it said in an emailed response.

“Through its intelligence and investigations team and other departments, Wada has been working with World Athletics and the authorities in the region, particularly in Kenya, to find solutions to the ongoing and complex issues being faced.”