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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Rob Draper

Revealed: how a Kenyan runner turned undercover agent to lift the lid on dopers

‘What was on offer was a deal. Go undercover and provide the authorities with information about other dopers he was in contact with and he could keep running.’
‘What was on offer was a deal. Go undercover and provide the authorities with information about other dopers he was in contact with and he could keep running.’ Photograph: kovop58/Getty Images

A winter’s day, 2015, New York. Investigator Victor Burgos turned over the conversation he was about to have in his mind. In the next minutes, he was either going to recruit an ally in the fight against anti-doping or have a hostile, frustrating encounter that would send him back to the drawing board. Chances were it would be the latter. The omertà of dopers matches the mafia. No one talks. Few inform on their peers.

He was meeting a distance runner who was blissfully unaware of what was coming. The man was superb by normal standards, his marathon ­personal best well within what might be regarded as world class. In Kenyan terms, though, he was a mid-ranker and never going to be an Olympic superstar. He also had tested positive for 19-­nortestosterone, a hardcore steroid.

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