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Athletes agent faces court case in France
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Door Omulo Okoth

The French athletes manager reported to have mistreated Kenyan runners has professed his innocence and now claims he was threatened if he steps on Kenyan soil. Talking to French daily, DerniËres Nouvelles dAlscace on December 1, Jean Conrath, a former runner who has been managing athletes for three years through his company, International team Sport Management, said he is traumatised by the whole event. He denies having exploited the 15 athletes in Vendenheim, Germany. Legal action was started by Strasbourg public prosecutors department but no police custody has been ordered. However, investigations are in progress.

Conflict
The manager will appear in court on February 1, 2006. Athletics Kenya secretary-general, David Okeyo, said they are still investigating.”I enabled them to earn a living by entering them in French road races. For example, they ran at the La Rochelle Marathon on November 27,” he said.”I brought five runners. Their travelling expenses cost me Euros 5,000 (Sh480,000). Three of them earned 300 (Sh28,800) prize money. I have to pay the rest,” he claimed. Independent sources, however, quoted a race official of La Rochelle Marathon as saying the runners travelled by road from Strasbourg to La Rochelle.”For about 10 days, I have been in conflict with some of the athletes because of prize money. Normally, they would pay me their earnings and then I pay them back minus the monthly Euros 200 (Sh19,200) for accommodation and my 15 per cent commission,” he said. “For three weeks, they have been cashing the cheques, without giving anything to me,” he said. The 15 Kenyan athletes, 11 of them men, include Evans Cheruiyot, the winner of Paris 20km.

Complot
They were accommodated in appalling conditions in a house without heating. They had to boil water to get warm in a country where there was snow for two days last week.They reportedly paid the manager 200 Euros a month to sleep on mattresses. They were yet to be paid their prizes.The athletes and local authorities lodged a complaint against the manager. A temporary housing solution in a hotel was found by the social services. Conrath says the accommodation was not bad. “I was to buy this house. I repaired the floor and the wallpaper, and there is heating. This morning (Friday) I did some cleaning and the temperature was 24_. I wanted to install the shower but no contractor was available before January,” he said. “They (athletes) left with the cutlery, the radio and left waste everywhere in the house,” he said. Apparently, the Euros 5,000 mentioned by the manager includes the plane tickets Nairobi-Frankfurt. The Frenchman, who was involved in La Rochelle Marathon and is also a correspondent for another French newspaper, reported that Conrath considers it as a plot against him.

Vendenheim
The runners are said to have acted out of revenge while he was away for La Rochelle Marathon. He said he was threatened with death if he ever landed in Kenya again. One of the runners, says the organisers of La Rochelle, paid for the flight. The youngest is 20. The oldest, John Kimaiyo, 30, is married with two children.For two months for some, and five days for others, they were staying in Vendenheim, where their manager accommodated them in an ancient village house. The district council, originally honoured by their presence, let them use the facilities of the local stadium.Henri Bronner, the mayor of Vendenheim, who alerted the police and found new accommodation by the social services in a hotel in Strasbourg, first went to assess the situation. “We had some complaints from the runners about the food 10 days ago. Then I noted that the house was too small for 15, without any furniture, with four chairs and two little tables,” he said. Against what he qualifies as a “humanity problem”, local solidarity was set in action. Since Thursday, inhabitants and town councillors spent time to drive the athletes from the hotel to a gymnasium in Vendenheim where they can have hot food. “Private individuals proposed temporary housing solutions. Well see because at the moment the hotel rooms are paid until Saturday,” said the mayor. Police from Brumath (Gendarmes) alerted by the mayor of Vendenheim, last Monday went to Rue Neuve, Vendenheim to record the living conditions of the Kenyan athletes.

© Eastern Standard