Athletics Kenya teams up with AIU, takes doping fight to junior athletes

Athletics Kenya and Athletics Integrity (AIU) officials have taken the fight for a clean sport to junior athletes in a bid end the doping menace in the East African country.

As many as 23 Kenya athletes have been suspended by the AIU this year and Athletics Kenya is determined to rid the country of the menace and get the AIU to take the east African country off the list of the highest doping risk nation.

To this end, Athletics Kenya in collaboration with the AIU has, according to Kenya’s number one newspaper, Daily Nation, started ‘education forums across the country to sensitise upcoming athletes on the dangers of doping in the sport.’

The seminars, according to the newspaper will be targeting 600 junior athletes aged below 20 years old in a bid end the doping menace.

They are the focus because they will be graduating to the senior ranks and need to cultivate a culture of “clean sports”.

“This programme has been initiated by the federation and AIU. Our goal is to make sure we teach the junior athletes the need for running clean because it is easier to bring them up to speed about performance enhancing drugs.

‘This is the right age and we are targeting more 600 across the country,” the newspaper quoted Athletics Kenya’s Youth Development Director Barnaba Korir as saying on Monday.

“Top athletes who understand the need to practise clean sports are the ones who have been caught yet they have been taken through education and they understand.

‘Some athletes are taking a gamble and using banned substances and the system is now catching up with them,” he was also quoted to have said.