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Kenyan athlete accuses anti-doping agency of setting her up


Kenyan athlete, Mercy Jerotich Kibarus, has had her visa application to South Korea cancelled over a doping scandal.

The 30-year-old marathoner intended to travel to the Asian country next week, to compete in a professional race on March 16, which would have marked her comeback after two years on the sidelines.

She has however maintained her innocence in the wake of these sustained allegations, and instead blamed both the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya and her former agent Gianni Demadona of engineering her woes.

She is also asking the Government to intervene and enforce orders by both Athletics Kenya and the Sports Disputes Tribunal to absolve her.

INNOCENT

“I am innocent because I have never taken any drugs to help me ran faster. Besides I have severally proven my innocence but the ADAK people have refused to clear me. I don’t know why,” she said in an interview with Nation Sport.

Contacted, ADAK’s Complaints and Testing representative, Sarah Indieva, refused to formally comment on this subject.

“We are guarded by policies and guidelines from the international law that prohibit us from discussing an athlete’s personal life,” she said.

Jerotich’s woes began two years ago, when she failed a doping test moments after she came second at the First Lady’s Half Marathon in Nairobi in March 2015.

Jerotich, a mother of three, also claims that the breakdown in relationship with Demadona could be be the main reason she is struggling to be re-admitted to athletics.