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Kenyan Athletes, Age is More Than a Number

Door Peter Njenga

Young Kenyan athletes who finish secondary education before attaining the age of 18, find it necessary to falsify their age in order to acquire national identification cards.This, they realised, increases their chance of being recruited into the disciplined forces, where athletics is highly nurtured and prized.

Twee paspoorten
Athletes also pass themselves off to be younger than they actually are, (as in the case of Joseph Longosiwa, a police cadet who was recently charged with being in possession of two passports, showing different ages) so as to compete in junior meets, where a win is bound to attract international scouts and agents.But now that Athletics Kenya has been censored by the International Athletics Association Federation (IAAF) for condoning age cheating, the association has already made an example of Emmauel Chamer and Longosiwa.Longosiwa was dropped from the junior team that represented Kenya at the 11th IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing last week.These were however treated as isolated cases.

Meer vragen dan antwoorden
Age cheating was a big issue in Beijing and the IAAF was categorical. It said it will treat age cheats as severely as does with those caught using performance-enhancing drugs by banning them for life.Suspicion of age cheating has spread to other African countries, Ethiopia and Uganda included, whose juniors have lately excelled in several meets.For a long time, Kenya used the World Junior Championship as a platform for identifying talent and as recruiting grounds for the senior category. But in the past eight years, there have been more questions than answers as Kenyan junior runners hardly last more than two years after graduating to the senior category.Some tried to explain this away by saying that since Kenya churned out more runners than any country, competition was too stiff for any runner to last long.But now this theory is being disputed considering that the runners are not only failing to win in the senior races, they also burn out in a short time.Coaches privy to events behind-the-scenes happenings point out that runners masquerading as juniors, race for the primary purpose of getting noticed by foreign agents, from where they can earn a quick buck in the international circuit. Some of these runners are in their mid 20s.Longosiwa presented himself as being 18 when he is actually 24. His peers are 3,000 metres steeplechase world champion and record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen, aka Stephen Cherono and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele.

Het moet stoppen
Qatar athletics coach Renato Canova whose country poached Kenyas best or promising athletes says no foreign manager would touch an athlete who is 20 years and above and who has no winning track record. Agents recruiting Kenyan athletes who want to change citizenship are targeting those who are 19 years and below and 22 for marathoners.Athletics Kenya which lacks the framework to monitor athletes movement, is a toothless bull dog. The government, through the Minister for Sports Maina Kamanda has vowed to end age cheating but finds itself in a tight corner. Supporting letters in passport applications are issued by the Kenya Sports Council, among other documents from various government departments.Exactly where does the rot begin? Whatever steps the government will take, the buck has to stop somewhere.

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