NOC-K president Paul Terga calls for doping to be criminalised
Nairobi, Tuesday
National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) president Paul Tergat said on Monday that subjecting dopers to criminal charges will help curb the spread of the vice in the country.
Tergat, who is a former World Marathon record-holder said it is time for the country to create a new law that will criminalise the offence.
“We all ran clean and we want our current crop of athletes to do the same. There’s no shortcut to clean sports except training hard. So many things have been happening right, left and centre regarding doping in Kenya,” Tergat said in Nairobi.
Barely a month goes by without a new culprit being caught by the country’s anti-doping agency ADAK, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) or World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The latest case is Honolulu marathon bronze medalist Vincent Yator, whose urine sample taken after the Gold Coast Marathon showed the presence of Prednisone, Prednisolone and metabolites of testosterone, all of which are banned substances.
“Kenya now needs to be tough on dopers by criminalising their offences. They will suffer double loss to revenue and time in jail if they are found doping,” said Tergat.
With its high number of dopers, Kenya has been placed under category A on the list of countries being watched together with Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bahrain, Morocco, Ukraine and Belarus. -Xinhua
