This doping thing is getting worse: Further analysis revealed many top athletes, among them 25 Kenyans and 58 Russians

IAAF President Lamine Diack and former IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev, who resigned his position on Friday, but still remains the President of Russian Athletics Federation. [PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES]

We are back to athletics. The only other sport, apart from football, where many things seem to be happening, good and bad, in competition and side lines.

World athletics ruling body, IAAF, said this week it had initiated investigations into the doping scandal published by the German television station ARD.

The three-part expose appeared to paint a very gloomy picture of global athletics as to suggest it is beholden to some doping syndicate.
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) took the cue and said it would soon start their own investigations, too.

This time the target number one, at least from the first two parts, was Russia. The head of Russian Athletics Federation, who also was the Treasurer of the IAAF, Valentin Balakhnichev, has quit his post at the IAAF.

The third part of the series was a tad too sensational. In what was also published in The Daily Telegraph, the report, quoting a former official of the IAAF anti-doping commission, roped in the world body – IAAF – and accused it of being complicit in the doping infamy.

It suggested the IAAF turned the eye the other side, while these things were going. IAAF Spokesman, Nick davies, denied such a suggestion and termed the report unethical.

But now my interest was aroused by the mention of Kenya as being only second to Russia in this sporting subterfuge. Telegraph Sports claimed to have documents exposed by the German broadcaster which accused the IAAF of failing to act on its own findings in around 150 cases of abnormal readings.

To the shock of the British newspaper, it obtained the list which revealed the name of one of Britain’s biggest athletics stars. Now who could this be, folks?

If you talk about one of Britain’s biggest athletics stars, I don’t know any other apart from the one whose name I will not oublish here.
But it is very scaring, folks, knowing the athlete’s steady rise to success and the athlete’s connection to Kenya.

Further analysis revealed many top athletes, among them 25 Kenyans and 58 Russians. The list has three 2012 London Olympics champions and double figures of gold, silver and bronze medallists from other Games.

At this point, I am genuinely afraid, folks. This scandal could bring down IAAF and its leadership. The whistle blower is said to be a former long-standing member of the governing body’s medical and anti-doping commission. I hope this is not Dr Gabrielle Dolle, the former IAAF anti-doping official who resigned his position three days ago after being questioned by IAAF Ethics Commission.

Who are the 25 Kenyans in the list? Am I the only one with goose pimples all over me? I asked a senior Athletics Kenya (AK) official on Thursday, but he just laughed it off.

This doping thing had become so bad that Kenya was being marked for sanctions in international competitions.

Sanctions will means no Kenyan participation in regional, continental and international competitions. It means we become a pariah state like South Africa during the apartheid era. It means no country can come to Kenya for any sporting competition. Kenya and Jamaica were marked for sanctions but the latter initiate dinternal measures to tackle the scourge.
Watch this space. This latest scandal from ARD and the Daily Telegraph won’t die off just yet as some Kenyans might wish.