Nairobi Marathon winners yet to get their cash prizes
Joshua Kipkorir celebrates on his way to winning 42 Km Standard Chartered Marathon on October 25, 2015 at Nyayo Stadium. Winners are yet to receive their cash prizes owing to delay in World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory results done on the top 10 athletes. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- AK president Lt Gen (rtd) Jackson Tuwei on Monday said the federation has only received random results of some of the tests.
- Standard Chartered Bank’s chief executive Lamin Manjang told a press conference on Monday that the delay was causing a lot of anxiety among the prize winners and in the athletics fraternity.
- Winners from others races such as the Kisumu Marathon, Kakamega Forest Half Marathon, Kass Marathon and Madoka Half Marathon have also not been paid owing to the delay.
Athletics Kenya will issue official results of last October’s Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon only after World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) laboratory in South Africa has released results of doping tests done on the top 10 athletes.
AK president Lt Gen (rtd) Jackson Tuwei on Monday said the federation has only received random results of some of the tests.
“We can only issue the prize money based on the Wada report to avoid a situation where we reward an athlete who has failed a dope test,” Tuwei said on Monday.
He was reacting to concerns by the Standard Chartered management over the delay in releasing of the results of the Nairobi Marathon that was held on October 25 last year. The bank’s chief executive Lamin Manjang told a press conference on Monday that the delay was causing a lot of anxiety among the prize winners and in the athletics fraternity.
Tuwei said last week at Riadha House, two officials from the bank were taken through the new process of handling blood samples. He said under the new rules, the blood samples are to be relayed to Anti-Doping Management System (Adams) in Switzerland for clearance before being sent back to South Africa.
OTHER WINNERS NOT PAID
“We showed them all the correspondence and the reasons for the delay. It’s unfortunate that the officials held a press conference alone when we could have done it together,” said Tuwei.
He said winners from others races such as the Kisumu Marathon, Kakamega Forest Half Marathon, Kass Marathon and Madoka Half Marathon have also not been paid owing to the delay. However, Tuwei assured the athletes that they would be receive their money as soon as the results are released.
Manjang acknowledged that AK had informed them about the delay.
“It is unfortunate that whereas the process has been faster in the past, there has been an inordinate delay of the 2015 results. Last week, AK told us a lot of progress had been made,” said Manjang.
Standard Chartered Bank has not paid prize money for the winners in the 21km and 42km categories because of the delay.
Manjang said in line with IAAF regulations, the prize money would only be paid out after anti-doping results have been released by AK.
