Athletics' fight against the curse of doping suffered a setback
Wednesday after two Kenyan athletes failed drugs tests.
The 21-year-old
Koki Manunga and the 29-year-old Joyce Zakary -- who are both 400 meter runners
-- were provisionally suspended by the International Association of Athletic
Federations (IAAF) after returning positive samples on August 20 and 21
respectively at the World Championships in Beijing, China.
"These targeted tests were conducted by the IAAF at the
athlete hotels during the pre-competition phase," said an IAAF statement.
"The IAAF
will not discuss the details of the cases as they progress through the results
management process."
As it launched
its own investigation, Athletics Kenya (AK) said it had met with the IAAF and
the two athletes.
"Athletics
Kenya will provide full support and cooperation to the IAAF during the results
management process and will not be providing further comment at this
stage," the organization said in a statement sent to CNN.
Prior to the
start of the World Championships the IAAF, which last week elected its new head
-- British former Olympian Sebastian Coe -- has had to battle doping
allegations.
Earlier this month, Britain's Sunday Times and German
broadcaster ARD revealed they had access to a leaked database containing more
than 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes from 2001 to 2012. Leading experts
concluded that these that these revealed an "extraordinary level of
cheating" in the sport.
In response to
those reports, AK said they were "an attempt to smear" its team ahead
of the World Championships.
"AK has
been at the forefront of identifying doping as a problem and in the past two
years we have devoted a lot of time and resources to combat the vice with the
assistance of IAAF, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Kenyan government and
international partners such as China and Norway," it said in a statement
on August 2.
"We have
committed resources on doping sensitisation of our athletes at annual seminars
and our leaders have used every available platform to emphasize the dangers and
perils of using banned substances.
"Our
mission as a national federation in conjunction with our partners is to ensure
a clean sport of athletics and therefore will do everything within our mandate
to tackle the issues of doping."
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