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Kamar Etiang will have to wait longer to make his debut at the world’s biggest sports event, Olympics, after Athletics Kenya (AK) and Olympic Kenya sealed his fate by officially dropping him from the Tokyo-bound team and replaced him with world champion Timothy Cheruiyot.

Etiang could not hide his joy on June 19, when he crossed the line in second position during the national Olympics trials at Kasarani as he knew that his feat had earned him an automatic ticket to the Summer Games, but People Sport yesterday learnt that AK failed to submit his name to the Olympics organisers before last week’s deadline and instead forwarded Cheruiyot’s number who finished fourth during the trials.

Now Cheruiyot, who displayed good form during the Monaco Diamond League last week, will represent the country together with Charles Simotwo and Abel Kipsang in the 1,500m race.

The Turkana-based athlete is believed to have been locked out after failing to meet the anti-doping requirements.

For the last three weeks, the uncertainty on the 19-year-old’s onus to represent Kenya at the Tokyo Olympics Games has played in the public limelight, ironically his fate was to be determined thousands of miles away, in the hands of  World Anti-doping  Agency  (Wada) and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), who ultimately had the last laugh.

He was expected to have undergone three mandatory anti-doping tests as required by AIU and World Athletics, ahead of the national trials. But that never happened, efforts by AK top brass to intervene failed.

AK senior vice president Paul Mutwii explaining the intrigues that led to the decision that was solely guided by Kenya’s bad imagine in the fight against doping.

“Kenya is one of the few countries  that has been in category A of the member federations the World Athletics believes are most likely to have doping problems. This is a position we put ourselves in. 

We might choose to make noise in the form of public Court but that will us nowhere with this we can even get banned,” Mutwii said. Mutwii explained that inclusion of the world champion in the list submitted to National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) and which was later shared to the World Athletics, was the best decision for the country.

“We know what Timothy is capable of doing. He is a top athlete that we hope will win gold, which we last won in 2008. 

So we had an option of entering two athletes and exclude Cheruiyot but that was illogical, we can’t punish a top performer just because of  Etiang or any other athlete in that situation, this are two isolated situations,” said Mutwii.

A heart broken Etiang who last week admitted he had been made aware of the WADA/AIU requirements, noting it was not his fault, said the setback will make him stronger.

“As a human being I feel bad this is happening, it is not my fault but that doesn’t make it easier for me. On the other hand l’m a believer of clean sport and I fully support ADAK/WADA/AIU in their endeavour to deliver on their objectives and it’s my humble request that they find a way Kenyan athletes can meet the standard without curtailing their dreams. 

Let the upcoming athletes have faith that if they make it, they are surely in the team,” said Etiang while wishing Team Kenya the best of luck in Tokyo.