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Kenya is famous for its long and
middle-distance running prowess, but it has been caught up in a
series of doping scandals over the last five years, a period
over which around 60 of its athletes have been sanctioned for
anti-doping violations.
A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report in September 2018 said
138 Kenyan athletes tested positive from 2004 to August 2018.
Barnaba Korir, Athletics Kenya Executive Committee member, said
a top athlete had escaped when anti-doping testers from the
Athletics Integrity Unit visited their camp this week in
Kapsabet, Nandi County in the country's west.
"After testers introduced themselves and why they visited the
camp, one athlete left as if to answer a call of nature only to
jump through the window and over the fence," Korir told Reuters
by phone late on Wednesday.
"They won't escape from the tough measures put in place, however
fast they run away and however long it takes."
Korir declined to divulge more details and say whether or not
the athlete being sought had won any international races.
"He is a fairly well known athlete," he said when asked for more
details on Thursday.
In the latest doping related case, the AIU said on its website
on Tuesday it had issued a charge against Kenyan middle distance
athlete Alfred Kipketer for what it said were whereabouts
failures.
The AIU did not give any more details on the case. Kipketer was
not immediately reachable for comment.
Under anti-doping regulations, athletes have to inform testing
authorities of their whereabouts for a one-hour window of every
day and three failures -- not being present at the said time --
within 12 months leads to an automatic ban.
In 2016, WADA put Kenya on its Category A list of nations on
watch for anti-doping violations.
Kenya plans to impose criminal penalties - including possible
jail terms - on athletes caught doping, and was preparing new
laws to deal with this, its sports minister said in December.
Last week, the AIU provisionally suspended Wilson Kipsang,
Kenyan former marathon world record holder and bronze medalist
at the 2012 Olympics, for failing to report his whereabouts and
tampering with samples.
Kipsang's management company denied the case involved the use of
doping and tampering with the doping test.
(Editing by George Obulutsa and Christian Radnedge)
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