The UK anti-doping agency has sent investigators to Kenya to probe allegations that four British athletes used the banned blood-booster EPO in a well-known high-altitude training region, claims that could increase the scope of the problem in the East African nation and show foreign runners are also doping there.
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The report on Citizen TV said that the video, which was part of an exposé by German TV channel ARD and British newspaper The Sunday Times, indicated that a section of athletes training at Iten, in Kenya’s famed Rift Valley training camps had been using Erythropoietin EPO drugs to boost their energy.
One of the two doctors claims to have supplied “more than 50” athletes, including three British runners, based on his guarantee he could dramatically improve their performances in “three months”.
In a statement, Ukad chief executive Nicole Sapstead said the footage was “of grave concern and of significant interest”.
This facility has also been used by athletes from other countries, including Britain, as well as Kenyan competitors.
She said, “We have opened an investigation and are taking the necessary steps to corroborate the evidence and investigate it further…this evidence is being treated with the utmost importance and urgency”.
The same doctor, according to ARD, when approached again retracted his claims and said he had nothing to do with doping and to have made up supplying the products.
They claim to have seen medical notes that one of the Kenyan doctors insists proved he treated a British athlete for an injury. In undercover filming, two doctors and their associate said they had provided the drug to at least four Britons, as well as Kenyans and those of other nationalities.
However, the presence of top-class British athletes at the camp could be a thing of the past, with UK Athletics confirming that it will conduct “extensive reviews” to decide whether its next trip to Iten, scheduled for the new year, should take place.
Saturday’s documentary alleges doping is rife at the elite training centre in Iten.
Ms Sapstead said Ukad has “concerns relating to the practices and the lack of anti-doping infrastructure in a number of countries” and urged sports organisations to carry out a risk assessment when choosing where their athletes train.
A UKA statement said the allegations that were put to it were “vague and unsubstantiated”.
UK Athletics has sent its elite athletes to the HATC for seven years during the British winter, with the majority of the country’s middle and long-distance athletes of worldwide standard spending periods of time there. “Once WADA has had the opportunity to review the evidence from UKAD’s investigation, we will be better positioned to determine what action is required to address the allegations”.
‘The UK Athletics endurance altitude training programme oversees training of athletes at altitude locations around the world.
‘We are confident that in the operation of our altitude trips, all reasonable measures are taken to ensure the safety and security of our athletes. At the time, a number of European athletes British and Turkish were in attendance.
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Kenya passed a new anti-doping law in April ahead of a deadline set by the World Anti-Doping Agency to comply with worldwide standards or face a possible ban at the upcoming Olympic Games.
