Pity we're distracted by talk of doping and fixing

ATHLETICS:There is an enduring inspiration provided by the majority of Kenya's distance runners, but that's not where our focus is at the moment

WHAT HAPPENED at the London Olympics was, in their own words, “a fiasco”. Then they were hit with allegations of widespread doping. Now, it seems, they’re being accused of race fixing – and that’s before they start to deal with the apparently severe tax arrears.

And we think Irish athletics has got problems.

So what is going on with the Kenyan distance runners, their all-conquering dominance so often held up as the model for the rest of the world?

Well, you know what they say about absolute power – although it’s probably not corruption that’s at play here as much as some good, old-fashioned greed, and a truth that lies somewhere between fact and fiction.

Not many countries came away from London wondering what went wrong after winning “only” two gold medals, four silvers, and five bronze – but Kenya’s Minister for Sport, Paul Otuoma, promptly demanded an explanation: “The performance was terrible,” he said, “a fiasco. I want a thorough audit of all sections so that we implement the recommendations and begin work for Rio 2016, now.”

Indeed, by Kenyan standards it was pretty shocking. Ezekiel Kemboi, inevitably, won the 3,000 metres steeplechase, and David Rudisha was a class apart in the 800 metres, yet several other gold medal hopefuls fell hopelessly short. In the end, Kenya finished 28th on the overall medal table, 15 places down on Beijing four years ago, where they finished 13th, with six gold medals, four silvers and four bronze.

Initial explanations were whimsical.

Kip Keino, head of Kenya’s Olympic Committee, suggested maybe too many runners timed their training poorly, or else poorly acclimatised to the British summer.

Head athletics coach Julius Kirwa then suggested the problem was allowing so many foreign runners to train in Kenya, who aren’t just benefitting from their unique training environment, but probably stealing Kenyan tactics, too.

“We should protect our own, by restricting others from invading our territory,” he said, citing the examples of Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah, a frequent visitor to the high altitude training camps in Iten, and Olympic marathon winner Stephen Kiprotich, who at age 17 moved from Uganda to Eldoret to train with the Kenyans, then coolly beat the best of them when it came to the London showdown.

That hardly explains it either. As special a place as Kenya is to train – and trust me, running at 8,000-feet on the edge of the Great Rift Valley does make a major difference – Farah spends more time training in the US than Kenya, and Kiprotich didn’t so much out-run the Kenyans in London as out-smart them, their top contenders clearly burnt from chasing the big money at the big city marathons earlier in the year.

Anyway, that debate was soon replaced by a more damning one, as the Kenyan athletics federation found itself addressing some rather smoking allegations of widespread doping, following an undercover sting by German reporter Hajo Seppelt.

You know what they say about smoke, although these allegations actually appear more faint than fiery: Seppelt reportedly spent months in Kenya earlier this year, posing as a sports agent, where he claims to have found several doctors not only willing to provide doping products such as EPO, but who admitted to already providing them to Kenyan runners.

Only when Seppelt aired his findings on German TV and radio last month did the Kenyan Athletics association come out fighting, or rather passively defending: “Kenyans are usually under a microscope for the good performance internationally and for credibility, we have to ensure that anti-doping measures are in place to avoid being suspected,” said Isaiah Kiplagat, chairman of Athletics Kenya. “We are now working with the Kenya Police and World Anti Doping Agency (Wada) to have the culprits arrested for that criminal act.”

No one is naive enough to believe that Kenyan athletics is entirely drug free, and indeed distance runner Mathew Kisorio tested positive at the Kenyan Championships this summer – later confessing his guilt, claiming doctors all over Kenya were corrupting athletes by supplying doping products in return for a percentage of their winnings.

It’s hard to conceive such a widespread supply of doping products in a country that still can’t readily supply hot water and electricity, and having spent several weeks last year living and training in Iten myself, these allegations seem extreme – although that’s not saying they’re not worrying, and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

What is certain is that despite the notable blip in London, Kenyan distance runners will continue to dominate the world stage. Indeed, it’s already business as usual as the autumn marathon season got underway in Berlin last Sunday, although that’s actually what has now landed them with accusations of race fixing.

There was no great surprise in Geoffrey Mutai winning in Berlin, beyond the surprising ease with which he won it. The problem here was that Mutai was being shadowed by training partner Dennis Kimetto in the closing miles, yet, as they approached the finish-line, Mutai eased in front, winning in 2:04:15, while Kimetto seemed perfectly content to finish second, a stride behind in 2:04:16.

To anyone watching it was clear Kimetto didn’t really try to win, or at least didn’t want to. Truth is, had Kimetto won, he would have denied Mutai a $500,000 bonus, on top of the race prize-money, as the winner of the World Marathon Majors series – which combines the two best results from Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York (and Mutai won last year’s New York, in a course record 2:05:05).

For Kimetto, there was no bonus whatsoever, although as Mutai’s training partner (plus they share the same agent) he’ll almost certainly get his share of the $500,000. Similar arrangements have been part of cycling culture for years, but this was new and worrying territory for big city marathons, and has already cast doubts over the future of the World Marathon Majors series.

And just when Kenyan athletics thought it had enough on its plate, the Kenya Revenue Authority this week notified several leading athletes of their tax arrears, including an Olympic medallist that apparently owes almost €600,000, going back 10 years.

It’s unlikely any of this will distract the Kenyan runners from a clean sweep of titles at today’s IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Kavarna, Bulgaria, where a total purse of $245,000 is on offer – and my picks are Eliud Kipchoge in the men’s race, and Pasalia Kipkoech in the women’s.

The only pity is all this talk of losing medals and possible doping and race fixing and tax dodging distracts from the enduring inspiration provided by the majority of Kenya’s distance runners, such as Wesley Korir, who tomorrow will look to add the Chicago marathon title to previous wins in Boston and Los Angeles, and who sends the majority of his earnings back to his poor, alcoholism-ridden village in Biribiriet, where he’s built a medical clinic and pays for the food of orphans his mother takes into her home.

And you know what they say about charity.