Coe: Kenya hosting the World Athletics Championships is an opportunity to get rid of doping
Amman3 min read
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World Athletics President, Britain's Sebastian Coe, viewed yesterday, Wednesday, Kenya's hosting of the 2029 World Championships as an opportunity to help combat the scourge of doping prevalent among athletes in the African country.
While Kenya is considered one of the major nations in global athletics, particularly in middle and long-distance races, it has also faced an increase in doping cases in recent years, but that did not prevent it from earning the honor of being the first African country to host the World Championships in 2029.
More than 100 Kenyan athletes are currently under suspension, including a new positive case announced on Tuesday by the Athletics Integrity Unit, the body tasked with combating doping in the sport.
The Briton Coe told Agence France-Presse during a meeting with the press in Nairobi on Wednesday, "This championship will help us in these efforts" aimed at making Kenyan athletics more honest.
He added, "Is there still work to be done? Yes. Will this championship strengthen the focus on this issue? Certainly," stressing that the Athletics Integrity Unit is "very clear in the reports it submits to me: there is progress being made" in Kenya, "but let's be realistic, we started from a very distant point."
Kenya ranked second in the overall standings behind the United States after winning 11 medals (7 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze) at the last World Championships in Tokyo in 2025.
But at a time when the country was celebrating this major achievement, nearly 140 athletes were suspended, including prominent stars.
In 2025, the Integrity Unit punished world marathon record holder Ruth Chepngetich with a three-year suspension after she admitted to using doping, in addition to Benard Kibet Koech, who finished fifth in the Paris Olympics in the 10,000 meters race.
Athletics is considered the national sport in Kenya, a country that still suffers from poverty and whose residents struggle to find jobs that provide a decent income.
Many in the country view this sport as a way out of poverty, even if it requires resorting to doping to achieve that.
Coe said, "I know, having spoken to the former president (of the country, Uhuru Kenyatta) as well as the current president (William Ruto, who took office in 2022), that the integrity of athletics, which is of great importance in Kenya and symbolizes the way the country is viewed around the world, is considered a major national priority."
He added that the Kenyan government has increased funding for anti-doping efforts, but he noted that "we will never live in a perfect world. But today we are much further ahead than we were when we started this path in 2015."
