London alarm bells ringing over danger of African drug cheats

ORGANISERS of the world’s leading marathons, including today’s London race, are privately concerned it is hard to perform effective drug tests on runners based in remote locations in Kenya and Ethiopia — where a majority of the top marathon stars come from.

The world’s six biggest marathons — Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York — are collectively known as the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM), and spend almost £1m each year on out-of-competition random blood tests of top runners.

The pool of targets varies but comprises around 150 men and women worldwide at any one time, including all ‘active’ male potential participants who have run sub 2hr 11min and all women under 2hr 30min. The AWMM aims to conduct six outof-competition blood tests on each person in the pool each year at a typical cost of more than £1,000 each. ‘It is important fans can believe what they see,’ London Marathon CEO Nick Bitel said.

The scheme bagged a massive scalp earlier this month when it was announced that a random test had resulted in a positive finding for EPO in Kenya’s Jemima Sumgong, who won last year’s London Marathon.

A majority of the world’s best marathon runners are from two countries: Kenya and Ethiopia. Of the top 56 runners in the AWMM rankings, 39, or 70 per cent, are from those two nations.

Sources say athletes who train in remote east African locations can ‘pose considerable logistical difficulties’ for testers. Getting to them can be arduous, insiders say, and getting blood samples to World Anti-Doping Agencyaccredited labs for testing is even trickier.

In order to guarantee samples do not deteriorate, blood must get to a WADA lab in 36 hours, although a rule change from January can extend this in some cases.

The problem is there is no WADA lab in Africa as South Africa’s has been suspended.

The London Marathon nonetheless remains at the forefront of clean sport, says Bitel, adding that the AWMM will continue to pursue cheats through the courts to retrieve prize money. London organisers continue to pursue the 2010 winner Liliya Shobukhova, of Russia, for £377,961.62 from her 2010 and 2011 wins, after which she was banned for doping.