A Kenyan magistrate this week ruled Rotich could be held by police for four weeks during an investigation into the claims he was prepared to warn coaches about doping controls for cash.
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John Anzrah, a Kenyan athletics coach, was sent home from Rio after he posed as an athlete and gave a urine sample in a doping test, according to a leading official from the country.
Ferguson Rotich finished fourth in the 800 meters at the world championships in Beijing past year.
Anzrah was then approached by a doping control officer who was looking for Rotich and asked to provide a urine sample, which the 61-year-old man did.
The source said “it was wrong for him to produce sample” and “signing samples as Ferguson Rotich”. “We met afterwards and agreed that the coach had acted irresponsibly first by taking an athlete’s accreditation and even presenting his samples for testing”.
Four senior officials at Kenya’s track federation have been suspended by the IAAF, track and field’s global governing body, after being accused of trying to corrupt the anti-doping process. “Depending on the outcome of the investigations and any follow-up action taken by the International Olympic Committee, there will be a further assessment by the IAAF”, Nikolaou said.
Anzrah is a former Kenyan 200- and 400-meter runner and competed at the world championships in 1987.
Rotich was the third athletics official to be charged under a new Kenyan anti-doping law which came into force in June from demands from the World Anti-Doping Agency and the IAAF. Kenya’s sports minister is also in Brazil with the team.
The International Olympic Commitee set up a disciplinary commission to look into the incident.
“We can not tolerate such behaviour”, said Kip Keino, chairman of Kenya’s National Olympic Committee, in a statement, per The Telegraph.
A second Kenyan track and field coach has been expelled from the Rio Olympics in a doping scandal.
In April, the country’s president passed a law making doping in sport a criminal offence, to satisfy WADA and save Kenya’s place at Rio.
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