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Coe: Age cheats will be stripped of their titles

Seb Coe

World Athletics President Seb Coe (left) and his deputy Jack Tuwei, who is also the Athletics Kenya president address the media at Riadha House in Nairobi on March 5, 2025. 

Photo credit: Ayumba Ayodi | Nation Media Group

By  Ayumba Ayodi

Correspondent

NMG Sport

What you need to know:

  • AK said through investigations with assistance from officers at the immigration and civil registry, they have identified 30 possible cases involved in age cheating while four were in the team for the world junior event.
  • “I believe there are no young athletes aged between 10 to 12 years old who can go and amend the date of birth. They won’t know. Those behind are some of the characters we shall pursue and all those involved in falsifying documents at the immigration and civil registry,” said Tuwei.

Age cheats will be stripped off all Olympic and world titles they may have won, World Athletics (WA) president Sebastian Coe has warned.

Speaking in Nairobi Wednesday, Coe said any athlete found guilt of cheating on their age would face severe punishment while his deputy Jack Tuwei warned local collaborators will face the wrath of the law.

Last month, Athletics Kenya announced that Olympians were among 34 Kenyan athletes being investigated for age cheating by WA with some  cases dating back to 2016.

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Coe said that they have age cheating and results manipulation working groups that are dealing with cases and that WA AK were working closely to address the issue.

“We shall continue to ensure that we don’t have age group competitions that have athletes ages unknown or falsified documents,” said Coe.

The Briton, who arrived in Kenya on Wednesday, spoke at a press conference at Riadha House after meeting President William Ruto and Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya.

Coe, who was accompanied by Tuwei, was also in the country to follow up on the progress made by the country in the fight against doping.

President William Ruto committed Sh650 million annually to help tackle the scourge.

The former 1,500m Olympic champion and 800m world record holder was also around to ask for the votes of National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) president Paul Tergat and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Humphrey Kayange ahead of IOC elections that will be held during the IOC congress from March 18 to 21 in Olympia, Greece.

Coe will fight it out with six other candidates for the IOC Presidency.  The winner will succeed Thomas Bach, whose presidency formally ends on June 23, after a three-month transition period.

Coe said that the 34 Kenyan cases will be handled by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

AK confirmed that they have already forwarded the names to AIU including  four athletes that were dropped from Team Kenya for the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Peru, last year.

AK said through investigations with assistance from officers at the immigration and civil registry, they have identified 30 possible cases involved in age cheating while four were in the team for the world junior event.

“I believe there are no young athletes aged between 10 to 12 years old who can go and amend the date of birth. They won’t know. Those behind are some of the characters we shall pursue and all those involved in falsifying documents at the immigration and civil registry,” said Tuwei.