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Kenyan marathon runner, Ronald Kimeli Kurgat, was notified of a positive test for the banned performance-enhancing drug (PED) triamcinolone acetonide.

The 39-year-old won the Nairobi Marathon in October 2024 at 2:13:05. Kurgat’s personal best was 2:11:08 from the 2012 running of the same event. Throughout his career, Kurgat had a habit of running less competitive marathon events. This was likely done in the hopes of earning prize money, rather than improving times. He races the Jerusalem, Cannes, Nairobi and Marrakesh marathon repeatedly. Perhaps knowing he would face fewer competitors.

Triamcinolone acetonide is a synthetic corticosteroid medication. It is used to treat many issues including skin conditions, mouth sores, joint conditions, allergies, arthritis, and other conditions. 

Also suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit was More Vivek an Indian 10,000m runner with a personal best of 29:14.43. He tested positive for the cocktail of mephentermine, meldonium and dEPO. DEPO is a birth control product for women who do not want to take birth control pills daily. The injection is provided in three-month intervals. Mephentermine is used for the maintenance of blood pressure in hypotensive states. Meldonium is prescribed for cardiovascular, neurological, and metabolic conditions due to its anti-ischaemic and cardioprotective effects.

Vivek was just not good enough to make the international scene without and with a cocktail of injections. Time to retire.

The Anti-doping Collaboration: Enhanced Anti-Doping Project

In a concerted effort to uphold the integrity of athletics in Kenya, a collaboration has been created. The Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy & Sports, Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), and Athletics Kenya (AK) launched the Enhanced Anti-Doping Project.

In 2024, the government of Kenya reneged on an agreement to fund $5 million (USD) annually to stamp out doping in Kenya. While leading up to this commitment there was a rise in doping cases over the past decade. During this $5 million annual project, doping positives escalated, exposing Kenya as the dirtiest nation in the sport of athletics.

This new initiative addresses doping challenges through comprehensive strategies encompassing increased testing, education, and collaborative investigations.

Tariq Panja wrote in the New York Times an editorial, “Why Kenya Stopped Running from its Doping Past.”

About 300 athletes from Kenya have been punished for using banned substances since 2015. The situation was so bad at one point that track and field officials had discussed the possibility of the unthinkable: a ban similar to those imposed on Russia, another sporting powerhouse whose doping past — among other issues — has rendered it conspicuous by its absence in Paris.

Something has to give. Three hundred suspended athletes in one sport, “athletics,” would decimate almost all other national programs. Kenya continues to pump out talented athletes for events that take place all over the world.

Panja continued, Kenya’s vast footprint, and dominance, of track and field since Naftali Temu brought home the country’s first gold medal at the 1968 Games meant losing the nation would have diminished the entire sport, said Barnabas Korir, an executive committee member of Kenya’s athletics federation.

Without Kenya, he said, “other countries will feel they will not get a proper competition because this country has some of the best athletes, deeper talent than any country”

“That is why,” he added, “the chance was given to Kenya to redeem itself from this problem.”

If this collaborative effort does not change doping in a meaningful way, Athletics Kenya should be deemed non-compliant. Therefore suspended from international competition like Russia.

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