Kip Keino changes mind, says will stand for re-election

Published Sep. 7, 2017 9:42 p.m. ET

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) Kenyan running great Kip Keino has changed his mind and says he will stand for re-election as president of his country's Olympic committee.

Keino was not on the ballot when elections to choose a leader for the troubled National Olympic Committee of Kenya were cancelled at the last minute in May.

But the two-time Olympic champion said he will now stand against Paul Tergat in a re-scheduled vote at the end of this month.

Former distance runner Tergat and Keino are competing to take charge of a national Olympic committee in disarray after a scandal-ridden time last year.

Four senior Olympic committee officials are facing criminal charges after money and equipment meant to be used by Kenya's team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics went missing.

The officials implicated were Keino's two vice presidents, the committee's secretary general, and the team leader at the Rio Games. Keino, who was not implicated in any of the wrongdoing at NOCK, was pressured to step aside and allow new elections in a move to reform Kenya's Olympic body.

The International Olympic Committee cut off funding to Kenya after elections weren't held in May and has warned there will be more serious repercussions if a new leadership is not in place by the end of September.

Keino became president of NOCK in 1999.