Kipchoge sorry for Kenyan athletes caught doping
World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge heading out for a game drive at the Maasai Mara Game Reserve on August 8, 2020.
What you need to know:
- Kipchoge noted that self-discipline will be key to adhering to the rule.
- “I feel for those who have fallen short of the rules, but let us walk the talk lest people will think one is running away from something.”
- Kipchoge commended AIU and Athletics Kenya in their efforts to educate athletes about doping and for coming up with stringent measures to curb the menace.
Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge fails to understand how top elite athletes can violate the Athletes Integrity Unit’s (AIU’s) whereabouts rules that he termed “simple.”
Kipchoge urged Kenya athletes to change some of the lifestyles they have adopted saying it’s the cause of their whereabouts violations.
The world marathon record holder said he really felt sorry for some of Kenya’s top athletes, who have been banned or flagged down for violating the whereabouts rules by missing the tests.
The 2012 Olympic marathon bronze medallist Wilson Kipsang and 2017 World 1,500m champion Elijah Manang’oi are the latest top elite athletes to have been reprimanded for violating the whereabouts rule.
Kipsang, the winner of the 2012 and 2014 London Marathon, has since been handed a four-year ban for the missed tests and presenting fake evidence in his defence.
Manang’oi, the Commonwealth and Continental Cup champion, has provisionally been suspended for missing tests thrice and is likely to be banned for two years if found guilty.
They join a long list of Kenyan athletes who are on provisional suspension or have been banned for violating the whereabouts rules. They are Alex Oloitiptip and Alfred Kipketer.
“The whereabouts rule is really simple and not a complicated thing. I don’t see why people burn their midnight oil thinking about the whereabouts,” explained Kipchoge. “It’s just a one hour slot that someone doesn't need to engage in difficult calculations.”
For instance, Kipchoge said his whereabouts is up to date with him having been in Masai Mara over the weekend.
“Our kind of lifestyle is what is killing us athletes especially on whereabouts, yet most of the athletes might be clean and not running from something,” explained Kipchoge.
“We are all human beings and we would like to go out to enjoy, but let us observe the one hour slot.”
Kipchoge noted that self-discipline will be key to adhering to the rule.
“I feel for those who have fallen short of the rules, but let us walk the talk lest people will think one is running away from something.”
Kipchoge commended AIU and Athletics Kenya in their efforts to educate athletes about doping and for coming up with stringent measures to curb the menace.
