Lord Coe sends warning to age cheats, lauds efforts to curb doping menace

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has warned that age cheats will be stripped off all their Olympics and World Championships titles they may have won in the past and also serve severe punishment.

Coe, who arrived in the country on Wednesday, spoke at a press briefing at Athletes Kenya headquarters, Riadha House after meeting President William Ruto and Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya. He was accompanied by Athletes Kenya President Jack Tuwei.

The Briton said World Athletics in conjunction with Athletics Kenya have formed task forces that are working to curb age cheating and results manipulation.

“We will try to ensure we don’t have age group competitions whose athletes’ ages are not know,: said Coe.

The former 800m world record holder also lauded Kenya for its efforts to curb the doping menace which had threatened to make the country a sporting pariah: “I know the Athletic Integrity Unit, which is the independent organization within World Athletics that monitors and conducts all our testing programs, is very satisfied by the progress that is being made.

“The funding made available by the Kenyan government has been extremely helpful in this fight.”

We are moving in the right direction,” he added saying there were “better systems in place… and we’re moving absolutely in the right direction. But we are coming from a little way back. We will keep faith with the system and the people I trust to challenge the scourge.”

Last month AK announced that Olympians are among 34 Kenyan athletes being investigated by WA for age cheating with some cases dating back to 2016.

While AK confirmed to have submitted the 34 names to AIU including four runners who were chopped of Team Kenya for the World u-20 athletics championships in Peru last year, President Coe said the 34 cases will be handled by AIU.

Nearly 130 Kenyan athletes, mainly long-distance runners, have been sanctioned for drugs offences since 2017.

In June, Kenya handed out its first lifetime ban to marathon runner Beatrice Toroitich and a six-year ban to 10km record-holder Rhonex Kipruto.

Coe warned the number of sanctioned individuals could continue to increase, but that this was due to the success of its stringent testing regime.

To add salt to the doping wound, the Kenyan athletics has also been bedeviled by increasing cases of domestic violence/gender-based violence (GBV), involving athletes.

Reflecting on the emerging threat, Coe admitted the GBV is not alien to Kenyan athletics but nonetheless noted the potential of sports as a vehicle to create awareness about the vice.

“And the second key area, and the very prominent challenge, is gender-based violence, not entirely or uniquely linked to sport, but recognizing that we can use sport as a way of raising the profile of this challenge,” the world governing body boss said.

The former Olympic champion is set to vie for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Greece from 18-21 March against six other candidates.

The winner will succeed Thomas Bach, whose presidency formally ends on 23 June, after a three-month transition period.