PUBLISHED REPORT SAYS AGENTS BANNED BY ATHLETICS KENYA
**History Shows Most Will Be Restored Quickly**
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission
In
what has become an annual ritual each winter, Athletics Kenya has
released a list of athlete managers which it says are no longer able to
do business in Kenya. However, it is likely that at least some of the
four managers named in a report published by Agence France-Presse will
be allowed to continue working with Kenyan athletes.
According
to the report published on Jan. 21, Athletics Kenya chairman Isaiah
Kiplagat said that Britons Chris Gowar and Ian Ladbrooke, American
Hussein Makke, and Frenchman Khellil Benhalima will not have their
licences renewed for the 2009 season.
"We have received a lot of
complaints from the athletes that these managers were not paying them
the full share of their race earnings or were withholding their money
against their wishes," AFP quoted Kiplagat as saying at a news
conference in Nairobi.
Race Results Weekly was able to reach two
of the managers for comment, and both were confident that Athletics
Kenya would reinstate them, shortly. In fact, Makke said that he had
already been cleared.
"I can confirm that there was a
misunderstanding and I am a registered athlete representative for
Kenyan athletes for 2009 under Athletics Kenya," Makke wrote in an
e-mail message. "I hope this will clear up the issue."
Ladbrooke,
who also works as an elite athlete coordinator for events, said that
his reinstatement was coming, shortly. "It's a minor issue and will be
sorted out very soon,'' Ladbrooke commented via e-mail.
Gowar and Benhalima could not be reached for comment.
Athletics
Kenya has felt more pressure from athletes to take a tough stand with
agents after a celebrated case several years ago where a French manager
was convicted of abusing his group of Kenyan athletes, including new
marathon star Evans Cheruiyot. Cheruiyot said that the unscrupulous
agent made his athletes sleep 14 to a room, and withheld their race
winnings.
ENDS