New Kenyan Olympic Champion 2 years later

The biggest news in recent times for Kenyan athletics was the revelation that Kenya could get its 6^th gold medal eight months later courtesy of the Olympic 1500m champion Rashid Ramzi’s A sample from Beijing testing positive for the blood booster EPO-CERA.

This news couldn’t have been better for Asbel Kiprop, the silver medalist in the event, who stands to be elevated to gold and Kenya who had its best Games ever, even without that medal. However with it, shows a complete dominance of the middle distances with a sweep of the men and women’s 800 and 1500 gold medals. A feat no other country has ever accomplished in Olympic history.

I was both disappointed and delighted at the news of the positive test.  But I and many others were far from surprised that Ramzi was a cheat. If circumstantial evidence were permissible for positive tests then Ramzi would have been close to the top of most people's lists. That he managed to join a celebrated group of world and Olympic champions has been galling in the past few years as there is no bigger crime in athletics than making a mockery of one of its premier events – the men’s 1500m.

Assuming his B sample comes back positive this week, he'll be stripped of his gold medal and banned for two years. But I believe he should be banned for life! Clearly there is no way one can innocently ingest EPO-CERA prior to the Olympic Games and expect to be welcomed back 2 years later.

I am very delighted at the retrospective tests that the IOC is doing now because it sends a strong message of deterrence. The emergence of CERA offers the latest proof of why holding samples for eight years is a good idea. There is nothing particularly new about the drug itself. It is very much like EPO in that it elevates red blood cell count and has legitimate uses for people with renal failure or cancer who have trouble keeping their counts elevated.

In the doping world, that makes it easier to take -- maybe only once a month instead of once a week -- but also more risky because it's detectable longer.

Those who got hold of it around the time of the Beijing Olympics may have been hoping no test would be developed for it -- or maybe they underestimated the amount of time it would stay in their system.

Ramzi’s rise was backed up with little or no recognition but was meteoric.  A former Moroccan with limited prospects as a junior, he joined the Bahrain military and prospered under the coaching of Moroccan Khalid Boulami, a former Olympic 5000m medalist and brother to Brahim, the infamous EPO cheat who was a thorn to Kenyan steeplechasers early this decade.

In 2004 he won a world indoor silver medal over 800m. But then, early in that Olympic summer, he stunned everyone by ending the four-year winning streak of Hicham El Guerrouj at the Rome Golden League event and lowering his personal best by nine seconds. 

In Athens, despite being one of the favourites, he mysteriously trailed in 11th in his semi-final. We hardly saw him again until the following year's world championships in Helsinki. He won gold at 1500m and 800m, unprecedented in the modern era. He almost embarrassed his competitors with his ease of victory.

Bahrain rejoiced but he was hardly embraced by the sport. Infrequent appearances added to whispered suspicions and, though he took silver at the world championships of 2007 it was his first competition of the summer. He was, if nothing else, enigmatic. His Beijing gold was Bahrain's first Olympic success and he was richly rewarded and feted on his return.

Ramzi’s presence at the past two major championships only served to delay Asbel Kiprop’s climb up the medal stand. Juvenile tactics aside, the teenage prodigy, as I had pointed out in this column, was destined for greatness.

So Kiprop will be Kenya’s 4^th 1500m Olympic champion albeit in a different manner and means that he joins an elite set of middle distance heroes that include Kip Keino, Peter Rono and Noah Ngeny.

The saddest thing about Kiprop’s ascent from being the silver medalist to Olympic champion is that he will probably receive his gold medal in an envelope, minus the adulation and celebration that the feat deserves.

And that’s the tragic thing about athletes who win by cheating. They deny the legitimate winners their moments of glory, that unforgettable victory lap, the sponsorship gains etc.

All I can say is good riddance for drug cheats like Ramzi and kudos to our newest Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop.