NAIROBI, Kenya, January 3, 2025 – Athletics Kenya (AK) have intensified the war on age cheating ahead of a busy calendar year.
Youth sub-committee secretary Joseph Ilovi says they are keenly scrutinising identification documents provided by young athletes to ensure they are genuine.
“Whoever comes here as a youth, he or she should give us the correct documents because we want the right ages for the youth. We don’t want an athlete who is overage and yet he or she proclaims to be a youth by presenting a fake document,” Ilovi said.
He was speaking on the eve of the sixth and final leg of the AK Cross Country Series, set for the Cardinal Otunga High School in Mosocho, Kisii County, on Saturday.
The competition features six categories, including senior men and women’s 10km, Under 20 men’s 8km, Under 20 women’s 6km and 2km loop (men and women).
With regards to the Under 20 races, Ilovi is categorical that no overage runner will be allowed to compete.
“We are very serious…we are doing a lot of scrutiny when they give us their documents so that we may verify and okay whether they should run 6km for the women and 8km for the men,” he said.
Matters age cheating notwithstanding, Ilovi is expectant of a scintillating start to the year as athletes seek to prepare themselves for upcoming international competitions.
In particular, Ilovi is confident the ongoing cross country season will sharpen youngsters for the upcoming national trials for the Africa Under 18 and Under 20 Championships.
“After this we are going to have the county, regional and national cross country championships, then the track and field. For those who are going to be running here, they can gauge themselves to know where they have reached as far as track and field is concerned. I want to believe that the youth will be here in their numbers to build their stamina ahead of the trials, which will be some time in March or early April,” he said.
The final leg of the series follows previous ones in Machakos (October 19), Kapsokwony (October 26), Iten (November 2), Bomet (November 30) and Olkalou (December 14).
The national championships is set for March 8 at the Kenya Prisons Staff Training College in Ruiru.
