Track and field’s doping issue is “as bad as AIDS,” said the president of the sport’s governing body in Kenya, the distance-running powerhouse that has seen a recent string of positive drug tests among some of its runners.
“This doping issue is just as bad as AIDS,” Athletics Kenya president Isaiah Kiplagat said, according to Agence France-Presse. “This will be a serious elaborate exercise [to solve the problem]. We will roll out an educative program such as the one Kenya launched when HIV-AIDS was first detected.”
Kenya’s problems were magnified when it was reported that two-time reigning Boston and Chicago Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo failed a drug test due to EPO last year. She faces a lengthy ban.
At least 38 Kenyan athletes are believed to have tested positive, the BBC reported.
