Dusty roads where champions train — and doping is rife
THE dusty road through central Eldoret is peppered with pharmacies, incongruous modernity in a landscape of urban African low rise. It is an indication that perhaps not all is as it seems in this mecca for athletes from around the world.
A few miles from the hubbub, in what is at best a shack in a field, the athlete sitting in front of me breaks down in tears when I ask him about doping and what he knows. He is frightened — and with good reason.
He has trained with world-class runners from his own country and overseas, although initially he claims never to have done so. He then admits he has — but can’t talk about it. He won’t go near the subject of drugs because he remains traumatised after being arrested and interrogated after being caught buying doping products. He fears prison.
I can see, after a week in western Kenyan uplands, why some view this region as a haven for athletes who want to take banned drugs and not get caught.
It is renowned for the running settlements of Eldoret and Iten but the area remains under a cloud, not to mention under scrutiny by sporting authorities.
Chemists are just one group who benefit from the running industry. A former Olympic coach confides that the price of EPO, available over the counter, is significantly higher in Eldoret than in the capital, Nairobi.
I hear of a group of athletes, all represented by the same European agent, who were frequent visitors to Eldoret’s pharmacies. Their driver describes how they would alight downtown, then return to his car equipped with medical supplies. During a pit-stop one athlete discarded what was clearly a bag of used syringes.
First-hand accounts such as these strengthen my sense that the highlands have a serious doping problem — indeed, the IAAF continue to probe the issue.
In Nairobi, I visit a police station where the head of narcotics was responsible for a ‘drug bust’ last summer in which an assortment of alleged suppliers of sports doping products were held for up to a month each.
I obtain a copy of a statement, signed by a prominent world-record holder, admitting: ‘I always receive a notice for testing the night before.’
Back in Eldoret, I walk past the hospital where that same athlete turns up for his prearranged doping tests before another day pounding a track or the streets.
Why are this region’s mud roads so special? Why do elite athletes forego state-of-the-art highperformance centres in Europe and America to train on them?
The inhabitants of Iten say, with pride, that it is down to the high altitude and a plethora of high-level Kenyan training partners provide an ideal environment for longdistance training.
The skill and expertise of the coaches and Olympic champions based here are factors in the region’s success, of course. The physiology of its people is also a key component in Kenya’s dominance.
Yet professional running provides a path to riches that many in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley can only dream of. Short of money and with a desire to compete in road races in Europe, many are susceptible to the temptation of taking performance-enhancing drugs.
How many? A Spanish physiologist I meet — who is shadowing a well-known coach in Iten — estimates that five per cent of athletes in the region dope. The true number remains unspoken but I leave with a feeling it is much higher.