Confederation of Africa Athletics president Kalkaba Malboum has called for increased education on doping to uphold their status at the global level.
“We have to explain to our coaches, managers, athletes, sports leaders that doping/cheating is not good for our sport,” said Kalkaba.
“This must start here in Kenya since they are our number one. The entire continent is proud of Kenya and we want to protect them.”
He added Africa has no choice but to meet the criteria that calls for accredited doctors handling athletes as per the reforms being furthered at the IAAF.
“If our athletes want their performances to be recognised, then we need to follow the rules since the IAAF faces many challenges including doping and corruption,” said Kalkaba.
“Our image was bad and we need to rebuild our sport. Our sport is number one in the Olympic Games and this means we need to protect some values, integrity of the leadership and the IAAF, CAA and federations as well as the integrity of the athletes themselves.”
He added: “We have established an integrity unit, integrity board and a disciplinary tribunal. This is very important for the future of our sport.”
Kalkaba said in addition to doping, age cheating is rampant in African athletics and will call on the rest of the world for help.
“We are going to set up programmes geared towards eradicating the problem,” he observed. “We can also take some major steps to protect the integrity of our championships.”
“As a developing continent, we don’t have the knowhow and the expertise but we can ask for help from the IAAF and other continents,” observed.
Meanwhile, Kenyan-born Turks Yasemin Can and Meryem Akda won the European cross country championships over the weekend, reigniting the debate on IAAF eligibility rules among Europe-born runners.
Two-time European cross-country champion Fionnuala McCormack of Ireland hit out at the IAAF after she failed to bag a medal, finishing fourth behind Can, Meryem and Norway’s Karoline Grovdal, in that order.
McCormack had earlier this year vented her frustration after finishing fourth in the 10,000m at the European Championships.
“It’s a shame really that there are Kenyans so easily allowed to represent European countries because it takes away from the race,” she said.
“I don’t think they are legitimately running for the country. They haven’t grown up there. There is no connection there. They are basically being paid to run for Turkey.