The Athletics Integrity Unit head Brett Clothier has shared the main reason why he has visited Kenya ahead of the World Cross Country Championships.
Brett Clothier, the Head of the Athletics Integrity Unit is in the country to follow up on the issue of doping in Kenya and he has expressed satisfaction towards how things are moving.
Clothier noted that he jetted into the country to check on the progress and explain to athletes why many tests were being done randomly.
He had a chance to speak to the team that will be competing at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia including the likes of defending champion Beatrice Chebet, 10km world record holder Agnes Ngetich, and World Half Marathon champion Sabastian Sawe among others.
“It’s very important for us to talk to the athletes and explain what we are doing because they are seeing a lot more testing on the ground.
“They are seeing a lot of new rules and processes relating to how they register for competitions. So, it’s important to speak to the athletes and get their feedback and let them understand our goals and what we are doing.
“I think we are progressing well but we are on the start of the journey and so there is a lot more work to do,” Clothier told the media.
Meanwhile, in 2022, Kenya was on the verge of being banned by World Athletics due to the high rising numbers of doping cases, forcing the government to intervene.
Sports CS Ababu Namwamba came to the rescue of clean athletes, writing to World Athletics and urging them not to ban the country. The government ensured that it would scale up its investigation and testing capacity to help fight the rising number of doping cases among athletes in the country.
The Sports CS further announced that the government has set aside Sh600 million every year to help in the fight against doping in the next five years. Namwamba said the increased funding will boost the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) operations as well as intensify intelligence gathering.
