Athletes listen in during the 2018 Conference at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 26 – Athletics Kenya has invited 276 athletes who will converge in Eldoret for the second edition of the annual athletes’ conference from December 4-7.
The four-day invite-only conference, whose theme is ‘I choose Integrity’ will be graced by officials from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), who will specifically deal with doping matters.
The opening day session on December 4 will be a preserve of 112 marathoners and road runners who will be educated on matters doping before track and field athletes take over the remaining three days of the conference.
According to Athletics Kenya, the event will be mandatory for all invited athletes.
“AK will use this Conference as a first step towards 2020 Olympics Games preparations as required by World Athletics with the main topic for discussion being anti-doping and advise on the best way to remain and compete clean,” AK said in a statement.
The doping menace has been threatening to soil Kenya’s reputation in the world of athletics and AK has been using all means possible to educate athletes on the dangers of doping an importance of running clean.
The latest high-profile Kenyan athlete to attract a ban is former Half Marathon world record holder Abraham Kiptum who has been recently slapped with a four year ban over doping.
AK made the decision to switch to an annual conference last year, doing away with the previous tradition of organizing an awards gala for top performing athletes and coaches.
Other areas of discussion will include ethics, investment, taxation and athlete-media relations.
