Kenya sends 2nd coach home after doping allegations
Track coach allegedly posed as an athlete during doping test
A second Kenyan track and field official was expelled from the Olympics on Thursday for posing as an athlete and giving a doping sample in the athlete's name, Kenya's team leader said.
Track coach John Anzrah was sent home after he was found with 800-meter runner Ferguson Rotich's accreditation card, and after he had provided a urine sample for a doping test and signed forms in the name of Rotich, Kenyan team leader Stephen Arap Soi said.
Anzrah was reported to authorities by doping control officers after being found with Ferguson's accreditation badge in the athletes village, Arap Soi said.
"He [Anzrah] was...taken to the doping control station purportedly as Ferguson Rotich and subjected to produce the sample and he signed," Arap Soi said. "He took possession of an identity card of an athlete who was in the list of WADA for out of competition dope testing."
Anzrah, a former Kenyan sprinter and now coach, was kicked out by team officials because of "the crime he has committed against Team Kenya," Arap Soi said.
Ferguson Rotich finished fourth in the 800 metres at the world championships in Beijing last year.
This is the second doping scandal to rock Kenya's track team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and comes with Kenyan athletics in the midst of a doping crisis.
Last weekend, Kenyan track team manager Michael Rotich was sent home after undercover reporters alleged he sought a 10,000 pound ($13,000 US) payment from them to help athletes evade doping tests back in Kenya. Michael Rotich was filmed seeking the bribes in Kenya in January and February, Britain's The Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Michael Rotich was send home and is now under arrest in Kenya and facing criminal charges.
By The Associated Press