EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES ON DOPING BEHAVIOUR AMONG ATHLETICS YOUTHFUL KENYAN LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS
Ogama D.W. - School of Communication and Development Studies, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Omariba E. - School of Law, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Prof. Maurice M. Sakwa - School of Communication and Development Studies, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Athletics as a sporting activity is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. Globally in the athletic arena Kenyan athletes are world-famous and it’s through this success in medium and long distance running that athletic stars and champions have been created. Involvement in sport can make athletes who want to excel quickly be under undue stress and opt to use performance enhancing substances (PES) that leads to involvement in doping. Doping in sport has become an increasingly prominent topic. The decision to take part in doping practices is often based on many different information sources and attitudes of the athletes; hence this review explores athletes' knowledge and attitudes on doping behaviour since doping as a substance or method is potentially harmful to the health of the athletes and also gives them an unfair competitive edge. It represents an anathema, which poses great threat to the development of sports ideals in the modern day sports competitions. It is illegal and unethical to the sanctity of sports.
