Ezekiel Kemboi led a Kenyan sweep of the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase.CreditWu Hong/European Pressphoto Agency
BEIJING — It appeared to be business as usual for Kenya at the world track and field championships Monday night.
Vivian Cheruiyot won another women’s distance title, her second in the 10,000 meters. Ezekiel Kemboi then led another Kenyan medal sweep in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and, as usual, still had the energy to dance on the track after his latest devastating kick.
“I will be celebrating tonight with my teammates,” Kemboi said.
So it has gone for decades with the sports world generally quite comfortable with the received wisdom that Kenyan success is nothing but logical in light of the natural advantages conferred by the Great Rift Valley’s altitude and the motivation that comes from living in a society in which running is one of the few established pathways to international fame and fortune.
But Kenyans have clearly been relying on some unnatural advantages as well. The received wisdom is looking more than a little naïve with over 30 Kenyan athletes testing positive for banned substances since 2012. That includes Rita Jeptoo, a three-time Boston Marathon champion, who was barred for two years after testing positive in an out-of-competition test last year for the banned endurance booster EPO.
Rita Jeptoo, a three-time Boston Marathon champion from Kenya, was barred for two years after testing positive last year for a banned substance. CreditBrian Snyder/Reuters
Jeptoo has since appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the suspension while the International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport’s world governing body, has appealed to the same court to have Jeptoo’s penalty increased to a four-year ban.
This year, there have been more allegations of widespread doping in Kenya, and elsewhere. A recent report by German television station ARD and the British newspaper The Sunday Times concluded that from 2001 to 2012 more than 100 Olympic and world championship medalists in distance events had suspicious blood test results. Those included 18 as yet unidentified Kenyan medalists.
The I.A.A.F. has claimed that the reported results — leaked from a confidential I.A.A.F. database — are not sufficient proof of doping and were collected in large part before the introduction of the biological passport, which tracks athletes’ blood values over the course of their career.
But there is clearly a significant issue in Kenya, and significant room for improvement, which needs to be nearly as speedy as Kemboi’s last lap.
Longtime pillars of the track community, like Kemboi’s former coach Moses Kiptanui, are continuing to speak out. Kiptanui, a three-time world steeplechase champion, is stepping away from coaching altogether because of his frustration with the situation on the ground.
“The problem is that the number of athletes is huge now,” Kiptanui told France’s L’Equipe Magazine in an article published last week. “Now, only the very best of them have the chance to go abroad to run and thus make money. It’s why they are ready to do anything to make their mark, in particular doping.”
Moni Wekesa, a Kenyan professor who was the head of an independent task force in Kenya that recently investigated the severity of the problem, agreed that banned substances were far too easy to procure.
“In this country, there is more EPO being consumed by athletes than by the ill,” he told L’Equipe.
“In Kenya, we thought that doping only concerned people who lived in France and in England. But our investigation has shown us how enormous the problem is here.
“There’s lots of ignorance. Lots of the young athletes who are using these products lack education. And the government did absolutely nothing to stop this, no policy of prevention.”
Kenyan track and field officials have called the ARD and Sunday Times reports “an attempt to smear our runners” and destabilize the team before Beijing.
But after three days, Kenya now leads the medal table with two gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals: all that despite their surprising failure to win any medals in the men’s marathon on the steamy opening morning.
The steeplechasers did not only sweep the medals, they swept the first four places, with Kemboi winning in a time of 8 minutes 11.28 seconds and with Conseslus Kipruto second, Brimin Kipruto third and Jairus Kipchoge Birech fourth.
It was the fourth straight world title for the irrepressible Kemboi, who also won three straight silver medals, in 2003, 2005 and 2007. It was also the third Kenyan medal sweep in the event at the world championships.
There should be more Kenyan celebrations in Beijing, with David Rudisha, the world-record holder in the 800, again the favorite.
But the scandals and allegations have reportedly taken a toll on national pride and interest in runners’ achievements, even if Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, was quick to send his congratulations to Kemboi and Cheruioyot on Twitter.
Positive tests — particularly positive out-of-competition tests — are, of course, also a sign of progress and oversight. It is ever clearer that a global sport like track and field is only as credible as the weakest link in its antidoping chain: be they in Kenya, Russia, the Caribbean or anywhere else that could produce a leading athlete.
“The shame is the lack of a superstrong system hurts the clean athletes in every way,” said Mary Wittenberg, the former chief executive of New York Road Runners, which organizes the New York City Marathon. “Some will lose and some will win but under a cloud of suspicion.
“I think the new race will come from the athletes. Rather than a race for a pill, they’d like a race for a test that can prove they are clean.”
Wekesa, the Kenyan professor, and others maintain that the influx of foreign agents has played a role in the rise of doping. It can also be difficult to locate runners in the Great Rift Valley for unannounced testing when some areas do not have official addresses.
Local knowledge and integrity are key. And another key for Kenya will be getting a reliable testing center in Kenya.
“It’s a real concern,” Wittenberg said. “The World Marathon Majors was strongly supportive of an out-of-competition testing lab and system in Kenya and Ethiopia. That has to happen.”
For now, track and field’s world governing body collects blood samples on site and transports them to laboratories outside the country. Anti-Doping Norway, an independent agency, recently collected urine and blood samples on behalf of the I.A.A.F. in Kenya, and the organization and China’s Anti-Doping Agency are assisting Kenya in developing Kenya’s newly created antidoping body.
The I.A.A.F. has been pushing hard for a facility in Kenya that would meet with World Anti-Doping Agency approval and provide blood analysis.
“Due to complications on the part of the local partner in Kenya, the facility is not yet in place, and we are not in position to provide a new approximate date,” said Chris Turner, an I.A.A.F. spokesman, who emphasized that “having the local facility in place would assist the I.A.A.F. but it in no way means that samples are not being collected in Kenya.”
Many Kenyans might prefer to watch soccer, but their runners, both on the track and on the road, have been some of the country’s most visible international ambassadors through the years: from Kip Keino, now chairman of Kenya’s Olympic Committee, to Paul Tergat to Rudisha.
It is a rich legacy, one well worth protecting and extending, but only minus the unnatural advantages.
Source: The New York Times
