How a ‘tainted’ Kenyan runner won small races
‘Whole way of life crumbled’
NEWPORT, Kentucky, March 31, (AP): Larisa Mikhaylova’s business model is simple: In exchange for a cut of their prizes, she enters Kenyan runners into far-flung US road races that are small enough to be winnable but still large enough to offer modest cash rewards to top finishers.
Those smaller races usually can’t afford expensive drug-testing.
An investigation by US anti-doping officials and track’s world governing body into distance runners from Kenya has now zeroed in on the Russian agent, whose racers have had a remarkable success rate but also a string of positive drug tests, nearly all at races in Mexico. Mikhaylova insists she is blameless, but some US races are refusing to work with her group of athletes.
When Kenyan runner Lilian Mariita finished second at the Great Buffalo Chase 5K on July 4, 2015, in Frankfort, Kentucky, she picked up $2,500. But her whole way of life — competing in small races across the US, and sending winnings home to her poor village in western Kenya — crumbled.
Normally, the US Anti-Doping Agency would have no reason to police the race. This time, acting on a tip, drug testers were waiting, and steroids were found in Mariita’s urine sample. The 27-year-old was banned for eight years, the longest of any Kenyan runner, and is now back in her village of Nyaramba.
“I used to rely on this for money and I don’t know what is left for me,” Mariita said, sobbing in the modest home built with her US winnings.
Track’s world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, says it is investigating Mikhaylova and the runners she manages.
“We are working with USADA on her, and that group in particular,” said Kyle Barber, the IAAF out-of-competition testing and intelligence coordinator. “The ultimate goal of this investigation is to stop her working, to stop her being an active agent, to stop her being involved in the sport.”
Three Kenyans who worked with Mikhaylova have been caught doping since 2012. Jynocel Basweti, the father of Mariita’s 2-year-old daughter, tested positive at a Mexican marathon for a steroid. Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich was busted for a byproduct of the steroid nandrolone, also in Mexico. And Mariita failed two doping tests in eight months — the one in Frankfort and also one in Mexico.
Mariita, speaking exclusively to The Associated Press, detailed a regimen of unidentified pills she said Mikhaylova told her were vitamins. Her racing schedule was aggressive, aimed at maximizing prize money. She said Mikhaylova gave her three reddish capsules the day of the Frankfort race and regularly gave her tablets for other races, starting from when she joined her camp in 2011.
Mikhaylova, herself the 1998 European Cup champion at 800 meters, denied ever giving tablets to Mariita and said she repeatedly asked her if she doped and warned that she wouldn’t work with her if she did.
Mikhaylova told the AP that she registers athletes only for US races and that runners were on their own when they competed in Mexico.
In this Nov 15, 2014 file photo, Lilian Mariita, of Kenya, wins the women’s division of a half-marathon in
Richmond, Va. (AP)