Athletics Kenya registers 3,794 athletes in ongoing exercise

Athletics Kenya (AK) have so far registered 3, 794 athletes in the ongoing registration process which is part of the enhanced Kenya Anti-Doping program.

The coordinator of the program Kennedy Tanui, said 247 coaches and 20 athletes have been enlisted as support personnel.

Tanui, who spoke to reporters at St Vincent Pastoral Centre in Kisii during the ongoing exercise, said 70 athletes were registered in Kisii on the first day and 15 coaches.

 He warned that any active athletes who will not have been registered by December will be locked out of competitions.

“We have a grace period until December to register all active athletes. From January, the process will only be open to upcoming athletes. From January, the system will be up and running,” said Tanui.

He added: “After concluding the registration across the country, the exercise will continue at our Nairobi and Eldoret offices until the end of December. We have to have data on all athletes in the country. This will help in curbing age-cheating and contact tracing,” he noted.

Tanui added: “With the registration, cases of age manipulation which are prevalent in the country will be a thing of the past.”

He said AK is doing the exercise in collaboration with the government and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

Tanui said so far, Iten recorded the highest number of athletes, 1, 020, followed by Kericho, where 790 were registered. 

The team will on Thursday head to Riooga SDA Secondary School to register athletes, coaches and athlete support personnel from Nyamira County. Riooga is an AK-registered youth training camp.

AKa Nyanza South chairman Peter Angwenyi appealed to all athletes to turn up and register. “This is a very important exercise,” said Angwenyi.

On Friday, the team will camp at Mawego National Polytechnic in Homa Bay before heading to Kisumu and Siaya Counties on Saturday. In Kisumu, the registration will be done at Social Hall while in Siaya, the exercise will take place at Mlaha Primary School.

 The exercise will continue on September 16 and 17 at Mumias Sports Complex in Kakamega County. After Mumias, the team will head to Nyahururu, Nyeri, Machakos, Ngong and finally Nairobi.