There are currently 148 Kenyan athletes serving doping bans, second in number only to India, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). Some of their excuses have been breathtaking. Ruth Chepngetich, who broke the marathon world record by a staggering one minute and 57 seconds in Chicago two years ago, said she must have been contaminated when taking her housemaid’s medication after feeling hot. Emmaculate Anyango blamed mysterious hospital injections after fainting. Eglay Nalyanya and Betty Lampus both submitted fake medical records signed by different imaginary doctors at the same hospital.
Wilson Kipsang was a personal favourite. The former marathon world record holder told the AIU that he missed a fourth drug test because he had been held up by an accident on the road, caused by a landslide in heavy rainfall near the city of Nakuru. Kipsang submitted a photo of an upturned truck by way of explanation. But investigators found that rainfall around Nakuru leading up to the day in question had been unremarkable and unlikely to cause a landslide. They also discovered that the photo Kipsang claimed to have taken that day was actually of a road traffic accident that happened three months later.
