Kenyan Sprint Coach Used Athlete’s Badge for Free Breakfast, Then Took Doping Test for Him.

Kenya has sent home its second official from the Rio Olympics, after sprint coach John Anzrah posed as Kenyan athlete Ferguson Rotich, and then gave a urine sample under his name.

Rotich, an 800 meter runner, is set to compete on Friday. He finished fourth in last year’s world championships in Beijing.

According to Rotich’s agent, Marc Corstjens, the athlete did not request that Anzrah do that in his place. Corstjens said Rotich lent his badge to the coach only so that he could get himself a free breakfast in the Olympic village. It was then that a doping official confronted him, and — thinking he was indeed Rotich — asked him to take the doping test. Anzrah complied, but it’s unclear as to how he was caught posing as the athlete, who claims not to have known about it at the time.

“Ferguson is completely confused as to why he would do this, but the good news is that he found out straight away and went to the drug-tester and gave them blood and urine samples,” Corstjens said.

Strangely, Kip Keino, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, claimed he did not even know that Anzrah had joined the Kenyan delegation for the Rio games, and that Kenya had not paid for his trip.

“We don’t even know how he came here,” he said.

This is the second doping scandal to rattle the Kenyan team at this year’s games. Kenyan Olympic track and field manager Michael Rotich (no relation to Ferguson), reportedly offered to warn athletes about doping tests for a $13,000 bribe. He was caught during an undercover investigation by the British Sunday Times newspaper and German broadcaster ARD. He was released on bail on Friday, but has been suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federation.

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