UKAD investigates Kenyan doping claims surrounding British athletes
Last Updated: 10/07/16 7:36pm
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has launched an investigation after two Kenyan doctors and one of their associates claimed that they had given performance-enhancing drugs to British athletes.
The allegations emerged following a probe by The Sunday Times and German television channel ARD, with a documentary on Saturday alleging that doping is rife at Kenya's elite training centre in Iten.
The Sunday Times' file of evidence includes claims by two doctors that they gave a series of injections of the endurance-boosting drug EPO to a British athlete shortly before a major race and provided medical notes and blood test results to show they had treated the athlete for an injury.
There are also claims by a third Kenyan associated with them that three other Britons were among the 50 athletes he had given banned performance-enhancing drugs to in the past four years.
The ARD documentary, largely filmed with a hidden camera, says it successfully infiltrated a journalist posing as an athlete into the training centre which is a favoured spot for distance runners, both Kenyan and European, as it is at high altitude, 2400 metres above sea level.
One of the three men filmed, according to ARD, retracted his claims when approached again and said he had nothing to do with doping, and that he had made up his story about supplying the products.
However, officers from Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations arrested the three men after viewing film footage and investigators from UKAD flew to Nairobi on Thursday to provide assistance.
The chief executive of UKAD, Nicole Sapstead, said the report was "of grave concern and of significant interest".
"I can confirm that this evidence is being treated with the utmost importance and urgency, and two UKAD staff are currently in Kenya pursuing a number of lines of enquiry," she said.
UK Athletics has described the allegations as "vague and unsubstantiated" and encouraged the Sunday Times to "provide full details of all of the individuals and information in its article as a matter of urgency so that the claims can be investigated in a timely manner".
It added: "None of the allegations as presented relating to British athletes accords with our experience. Nevertheless, we take any allegations of doping seriously and will as always cooperate fully with any investigation undertaken by UKAD or other anti-doping organisations."
Japhter Rugut, head of the Kenyan anti-doping agency, said the revelations were "very shocking".
"We can see that we have a lot of problems at grassroots level and we will work with the police so as to weed out all those implicated in these criminal activities, both sports people and doctors, who will have to answer for their actions," he told ARD.
"We want to go to Rio [for the Olympics] with a clean team."
The Sunday Times also said it had photographs of empty EPO packets that had been discarded at the centre in Iten, but the owners have insisted that doping is not tolerated there.
"We have installed 16 cameras to monitor the camp. If we have any concerns about athletes, we immediately report the athlete to the IAAF who will normally test the athlete that same day," Pieter Langerhorst, who owns the centre with his wife, told the Observer.
