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Kenya might miss out on Rio Olympics due to WADA declaration

Kenya

Kenyan top athletes mights miss the Summer Olympic Games in Rio after the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that the country has not done enough to curb doping.

The doping agency’s compliance review committee unanimously recommended that Kenya be declared non-compliant with its regulations with immediate effect.

BREAKING: #Kenya declared non-compliant to world anti-doping code, risk Rio Olympics. https://t.co/h07ZvLTdhg pic.twitter.com/iTNkeG9ruz

— africanews (@africanews) May 12, 2016

According to WADA, the committee highlighted issues with Kenya’s new legislation.

Last month, the country’s president Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law stringent anti-doping bill for its athletes. This was done in line with directives from the doping agency.

“I have repeatedly emphasised, Kenya is 100 percent committed to ensuring total compliance with international regulations on sports and athletics, be they set by WADA, IAAF, the International Olympic Committee or any other international organisation. We are committed to ensuring that our athletes compete by the book because we believe that across the board, Kenyans are more than able to win fairly,” Kenyatta said.

Kenya is well known for producing some of the world’s best athletes but some 40 of its athletes have been banned for doping in the last three years.

Speaking at a press conference in Shanghai, China, 800 metre top athlete David Rudisha could not hide his disappointment.

“It’s not right to dope and it’s against the rules and also it’s against our colleagues, the athletes we compete (against). So I think also the anti-doping is doing their job and most of the top athletes are always on the list and we get frequent tests and every time we update our whereabouts,” he said.

Earlier in the year, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president, Sebastian Coe, hinted that the country risks international bans if they do not improve their anti-doping programmes.

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