Tom Kierey receives bronze medal due to doping offence other para canoe athlete
Source: DKV | Translation: Ulla Fischer - Kierey advances from rank four to rank three due to the doping offence of Yuriy Kikhayev from Ukraine at the previous world championships in Moscow. Initially, the athlete, who had started as titleholder in the LTA division in the K1, came in fourth place on the Krylatskoye race course on the 8th of August 2014.
“I cannot be fully satisfied with this medal and have to admit, that it harms the image of the sport itself”, said Kierey when he received the message during a trainings camp in South Africa. “Now we do not only have the issue of doping, but one of the aspirants for an Olympic medal in Rio and therefore one of my contenders is missing. As an athlete, one does not want to win a medal through such a situation, but it shows that the anti- doping controls serve their purpose. I hope this incident will remain an exception.”
The president of the German canoe federation (DKV) Thomas Konietzko expressed mixed feelings: “After all, this medal improves our overall results of Moskow and I am very happy for Tom because I know he trained hard. Nevertheless, as an athlete one wants to savour the moment of the victory and the disqualification of an athlete due to doping is a bitter setback for this young discipline. I wish everyone would perform consequent doping controls outside of competitions as well, as it is already the case in Germany.”
Kierey will receive the bronze medal from Konietzko, who is also an IFC board member, when he returns from the trainings camp in two weeks’ time. Shortly after, mid-April, the national qualifications for the para canoe athletes will take place in Duisburg and at another competition in Kienbaum mid- July. Only who qualifies there, will be able to compete at the world championships in Milan, which will take place from 18th until the 23rd of August.
1st Lane 4 ROU 640 - SERBAN, Iulian (1976) 00:39.467
2nd Lane 7 RUS 658 - KRYLOV, Leonid (1980) 00:39.962
3rd Lane 5 GER 248 - KIEREY, Tom (1994) 00:40.024
4th Lane 3 GBR 281 - OLIVER, Robert (1988) 00:40.633
5th Lane 2 BRA 090 - Nunes d. Almeida, Patrick R. (1991) 00:40.956
6th Lane 8 POL 583 - SURWILO, Mateusz (1991) 00:41.619
7th Lane 9 NZL 518 - MARTLEW, Scott (1992) 00:41.925
8th Lane 1 IRL 378 - O'LEARY, Patrick (1972) 00:42.541