Tuwei: New anti-doping law crucial for athletics

Athletics Kenya (AK) President Jack Tuwei maintains that all athletes eyeing Olympics tickets must follow anti-doping regulations as prescribed by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in order to be considered for this year’s Tokyo Games.

Tuwei spoke on Thursday as President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2020, into law.

The new law amends the Anti-Doping Act of 2016 to align Kenya's legislative framework with the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code and regulations.

In an exclusive interview with Nation Sport, Tuwei said Kenya needs to wriggle itself out of Category ‘A’ where the country has been placed by World Athletics due to rising cases of doping.

The retired army commander said all athletes must practice clean sports to prevent Kenya from being disqualified from global competitions.

“Kenya has been on the World Athletics radar for a long time and it has reached a time where, as a federation, we need to get out of that by running clean.

“Athletes who are eyeing to represent Kenya in the Olympics Games must be ready to undergo more testing which is a requirement to qualify as we go forward,” said Tuwei.

Kenya is expected to send a strong team to the Olympics Games slated for July 23 to August 8 this year in Tokyo. The Games were postponed after the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Tuwei also said athletes eyeing slots in the Kenyan team must start preparing early in the face of growing global competition.

“We have less than eight months to the Olympics Games and for us to beg more medals, we have to work extra hard and go for the prize,” he added.

Tuwei also thanked President Kenyatta for signing the Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2020, into law and commended both the National Assembly and Senate for the re-alignment of the Bill.

“The new law will help eradicate those who are always ready to go for fast cash, including the coaches and the agents, and we are happy as a federation because there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel,” said Tuwei, adding that 2020 was a tough year for athletes and expected a better season this year.

“Many athletes lost their contracts. There were no competitions for them to get money and this came with a lot of lessons which we now have to live with going forward in terms of investments,” he said.

With few competitions having taken place in 2020, Tuwei said that as a federation they were happy that they managed to host the first Continental Tour meeting — the Kip Keino Classic — which was a huge success.

“Hosting a Continental Tour leg was a good initiative which showed Kenya can host bigger events. We want to thank the government through the Ministry of Sports for their support. This year we have been given a chance to host the event again and going forward we shall be going for bigger events,” he said

Tuwei further noted that they have had to go back to the drawing board after the Africa Cross Country Championships was rescheduled to this year from last year due to the virus.

“The Africa Cross Country Championships team were the first casualties and the event that was to be held in Lome, Togo, had to be rescheduled to this year and we have to start afresh because time has changed,” he said.

“We have started the preparations for the event which we hope shall be held successfully this time round and we expect to send a strong team. We have already held two legs of the cross country championships and the third one goes down this weekend in Ol Kalou in Laikipia County where we expect a good number of athletes to compete,” he said.

Concerning the world records attained during the Covid-19 era, Tuwei said that new technology and training individually brought new lessons that athletes need to learn from going forward.

He congratulated Peres Jepchirchir, who broke the women-only world record time twice during the Prague Half Marathon in Czech Republic, and during the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland.

He also congratulated Kibiwott Kandie who also lowered the world half marathon mark.

“It was a year to learn new things and the new wave light technology was something new and it will reach a time where pacemakers will no longer be needed.

“Concerning the new shoes technology, we are following up closely the discussions with the World Athletics,” said Tuwei.

The federation, according to Tuwei, was also forced to go back to the drawing board after the World Under-20 Championships were cancelled due to the pandemic.

The championships will now be held at Kasarani from August 17 to 22 this year, just one week after the Olympic Games.

He said that many athletes who were to compete last year during the event were caught up with the age factor and need to go back to the grassroots level to look for new talents.

“We are already on top of things and we have been visiting and identifying probable youths who will be carrying Kenya’s flag during the championships in August. We want to select the best team who will be trained early enough because we want to bag more medals in the event,” added Tuwei.

He urged those who will be participating in various races which includes World Indoor Games, Diamond League, road races and marathons to do their best and carry the country’s flag high.

He wished all the athletes, coaches and agents a successful year urging them to always support the federation and practice clean sport as one way of eradicating the doping menace.