NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 6 – The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has detailed how USA-based athlete Michael Saruni went to extensive ways, including trying to switch himself with a look-alike, as he evaded the testers’ needles and pee-bottles at the 2022 Trials for the World Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
In a ruling made by the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) on August 31, 2023, but recently made public by ADAK, Saruni has now been slapped with a four-year ban and all his results from July 2022 invalidated after his antics at the Kasarani Stadium.
Saruni had been initially suspended by ADAK over the offense, but upon hearing, a ruling has been passed on, and not even the Tribunal could save his face.
According to ADAK witnesses, Saruni had tried to switch personalities with a lookalike in one of the bathrooms close to the testing centre at Kasarani, and upon being found out, reportedly scaled the perimeter wall and took off, leaving his would-be doppelganger at the hands of ADAK officials and later the police at the Kasarani Stadium Police Station.
Positively identified Saruni at the line
According to ADAK chaperone Karen Wairimu, he had positively identified Saruni before the race through a simple google search and later confirmed his presence on the start line before the 800m race when his name was mentioned and his face shown on the screen, wearing bib number 044.
Wairimu narrates that Saruni asked to go to the washroom as they made their way to the testing centre after the race, and that is where all the circus started.
“At 1455hrs, we arrived at the DCS common entrance, and he started coughing persistently as he hurriedly made his way to the washroom which was just near the DCS main entrance. I followed him towards the washroom trying to catch up with him. He entered the male washroom which I followed him into, and saw him entering the first washroom stall which he locked while still coughing,” Wairimu says, in a witness statement contained in the SDT ruling.
When he saw that the athlete had locked himself up, and having earlier insinuated that he had tested positive for COVID-19 the previous week, Wairimu asked a male chaperone to come in and keep an eye.
The male chaperone, Anthony Kamau, took over the duties to keep an eye on Saruni and it is during this changeover, that the athlete also tried a changeover, with someone that looked like him, later identified as Dennis Mwangi.
Someone coughing in the washroom
“I could hear someone in the stall coughing and flushing the toilet. I requested for the stall door to be opened. A male individual stepped out wearing the same outfit as the person I saw rushing to the toilets. I notice however, that the individual did not look like an athlete who had just finished a race and was also not coughing,” Kamau says in his statement.
He then called another chaperone, Michael Omollo, and informed him of his suspicions and they agreed to call the first chaperone, Wairimu, to identify the athlete.
“As I was going back to the toilet stalls, I saw someone switching from the first stall to the next door. I followed the individual and found a male behind the door. He was wearing black hooded top and black trousers. I requested him to step out of the stall. I asked him to leave the washroom with me so that Karen can identify the athlete known as Saruni,” recounts Omollo.
He adds; “He was in front of me as we left the washroom. As we approached the DCS, he immediately started running and jumped over a grilled perimeter wall.”
Coincidentally, the person who ran and scaled over the fence wore the same clothes as the man who had presented himself as Saruni.
In his defense, Saruni had maintained innocence, saying he has always complied whenever approached by testers and also alleged that at this time, no one had approached him to ask for tests. He also said that ADAK officials had not used any official means to identify him and never asked for his identification.
He also said that there were no photographs showing they had picked him at the finish line after positively identifying him.
Athlete statements downed
However, these statements were downed by the Tribunal, which confirmed that indeed the athlete had been positively identified before and after the race, and asked to accompany the chaperone to the testing centre.
Furthermore, it was revealed that there was a transaction of Sh70,000 between Saruni and his ‘friend’ Mwangi, to which Saruni said he had sent him the cash to help him withdraw for his upkeep and payment of hotel bills.
However, the Tribunal quashed this with logic that if indeed the money was for upkeep and payment of hotel bills, Saruni would not have gone back to his hotel, located behind TRM, without getting the cash, and his car, which he said Mwangi used to drive him from Eldoret to Nairobi.
