Long-Distance Runner Matthew Kisorio Describes Misery of Being Banned for Steroids

Matthew Kisorio, a long-distance running specialist from Kenya, discussed the misery of being banned from the sport he loves in a recent interview published by CapitalFM Sports. Kisorio described the difficulty of going from a highly-respected distance runner in his home country of Kenya to a disgraced athletes busted for using anabolic steroids.

Kisorio was an African junior 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter champion who switched to road racing in 2010. He showed promise especially at the half-marathon distance where he ran the third fastest time in history at 58:46 minutes in the 2010 Philadelphia Half-Marathon in September 2011. He had been training towards the goal of breaking the half-marathon world record of 58:23 set by Zersenay Tadese.

However, the world record quest was cut short when Kisorio returned to the track to compete at the Kenyan Track and Field Championships in June 2012. He test positive for an unspecified anabolic steroids and was given a two-year suspension. Kisorio admitted using steroids but blamed a Kenyan doctor for facilitating his doping.

Kisorio subsequently quit the sport for a year and gained employment as a lowly-paid constable with the Kenya Police force. He described his ostracism from the sport by fellow athletes and coaches as a result of his doping disgrace. Even worse was the perception that Kisorio was a “snitch” who told anti-doping officals of other Kenyan athletes who were doping. 

While Kisorio did tell German journalist Hajo Seppelt of ARD that he wasn't the only Kenyan running who resorted to banned performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), Kisorio strongly denies naming any athletes who may have used PEDs such as steroids and/or erythropoietin (EPO).

“I remember the Mzungu (white man) from Germany came here to my home when I had just woken up, I don’t know who showed him my home and how they got here,” Kisorio described his encounter with Seppelt. “He was in the company of three others and I tried to avoid him and speak with the three locals with him.”

Kisorio maintained that Seppelt only showed him a list of athletes and asked him if he knew them. Kisorio knew them as fellow Kenyan long-distance runners and told Seppelt as much. Kisorio was shocked when an ARD report suggested that he had implicated those runners as being involved in doping.

“He was showing me a list of athletes asking me whether I know them and I told him they are Kenyan athletes whom we do not train together,” according to Kisorio. “Later, it was published that I had implicated 30 athletes in doping but I was upset because, some of them train as far as Eldoret or Iten while I train in Eldoret. I have no idea how they train.”

Kisorio's two-year suspension comes to an end in July 2014. The half-marathon specialist has resumed training and is eyeing a comeback next summer.

Source:

Mutuota, M. (October 9, 2013). Kisorio: My doping ban hell. Retrieved from //www.capitalfm.co.ke/sports/2013/10/09/kisorio-my-doping-ban-hell