Drugs busts cast pall over Kenya’s World Athletics Championships triumphs

Kenyan athletes return to competition at the athletics world championships on Thursday doubtless thankful that the rivalry between Justin Gatlin and Usain Bolt in the 200 metres will overshadow the drugs shame surrounding their camp. 

Joyce Zakary of Kenya gestures after her women's 400 metres heat Reuters/David Gray

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which organises the world championships, revealed on Wednesday that two Kenyan athletes had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during examinations at the team’s hotel just before the start of the games.

Joyce Zakary, 29, and 21-year-old Koki Manunga have both accepted provisional bans while the IAAF has declined to expand on the nature of the substances the women were using.

When she ran in the heats of the 400 metres on Monday, Zakary set a Kenyan national record of 50.71 seconds. The time took her to the semi-finals on Tuesday but she pulled out. Manunga finished sixth in her heat of the 400m hurdles after clocking 58.96.

The two women will join 13 Kenyans serving suspensions for doping offences and further highlight what is believed to be a serious problem in a country where success in athletics is regarded as a path to wealth and fame.

The suspensions cast a pall over what should have been a second day of celebration for Kenyan.

On Tuesday Nicholas Bett and David Rudisha won golds in the men’s 400 metres hurdles and the 800 metres respectively. On Wednesday, Julius Yego became the first man from the country to win the javelin title at the world championships and Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi clamed the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase. Yego threw his weapon 92.72 metres.

The 26-year-old, who was fourth in the event in Moscow in 2013, said the revelations would not spoil his moment of glory.

“I really don’t want to dwell on the tests too much. It’s a shame,” he said. “I always believe you can win clean so it’s a shame for them. I really don’t want to say much more about it but it’s not good.”

Going into the sixth day of competition, Kenya led the medals table with six gold, three silver and two bronze.

Yego trains in Finland and South Africa because facilities for his discipline are inferior.

“We don’t have anything like what they have in Europe so that’s why I train there,” she said. “South Africa is good, too. But I go abroad to improve my technique. I need to keep improving that. If I do, I believe I can do well. I believe I will throw even further than 92 metres.”

Ihad Abdelrahman El Sayed from Egypt gained his country’s first medal at a world championships hurling his javelin 88.99 metres and Tero Pitkamaki from Finland won the bronze with a throw of 87.64 metres. With next year’s Rio Olympics in mind, they and the rest of javelin circuit will be hoping Yego doesn’t become too technically gifted.