Free meals allegedly drove sprint coach John Anzrah of Kenya to pose as an athlete to enter the Olympic Village, even reaching the point of submitting urine samples to doping inspectors – not until his cover was blown and he was sent back home packing.
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It comes two days after Michael Rotich, manager of the Kenyan athletics team, was arrested after being sent home following allegations in the Sunday Times he asked for pounds 10,000 bribes to give advance warning of tests.
Kenyan team leader Stephen Arap Soi says Anzrah was reported to authorities by doping control officers in the athletes’ village.
Kip Keino, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, told BBC: “We can not tolerate such behaviour”, before adding: “We don’t even know how he came here”.
The identity of the Olympian that Anzrah was posing as has not been released and it is not known if any punishment will be handed down to the athlete.
While Anzrah was sent home by the Kenyan team, the International Olympic Committee didn’t say if there would be any repercussions for Rotich.
‘The coach, for fear of being exposed or discovered, did not explain to the anti-doping guy that he is actually not the athlete. Rotich also claimed he went and found the tester after the fact to provide blood and urine samples.
So far Anzrah has not responded to requests for a comment.
Apparently, Anzrah is not the only official from the Kenya’s Olympic team who was sent home after a scandal regarding drug allegations.
‘Secondly it was wrong for him to produce sample and have him even signing samples as Ferguson Rotich’.
The International Olympic Committee said it had set up a disciplinary commission to investigate the matter.
He is accused of asking for money from journalists, who went undercover as representatives of athletes, to let them know when they would be tested.
Four senior officials at Kenya’s track federation have been suspended by track’s governing body after being accused of trying to corrupt the anti-doping system.
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Kenya was only removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (Wada) list of “non-compliant” countries last Friday, the day the Rio Games opened.
