Editor,

RE: "Kajuga's doping case a big lesson for Rwanda” (The New Times, March 19).

Ultimately every athlete is responsible for his or her actions when it comes to testing. Robert Kajuga claiming ignorance is a pathetic excuse and his four-year ban should remain.

Every cyclist on Team Rwanda has been instructed to immediately comply with any request to be tested in or out of competition. We have educated all our cyclists on the importance of this. They also have been instructed to never take any medication without giving it to us to verify whether they can take it or not. There's a WADA app you can download on your phone and since every Rwandan has a phone, it's no excuse.

Not taking a request for a test seriously shows Kajuga's lack of commitment to the sport.

At the Tour of Rwanda this year, every stage we had a rider tested. The riders were instructed their first commitment was to the dope control representative. The media would keep them at the protocol while dope control wanted to test them. On several occasions we had to step in and pull them away from the media to send them to dope control.

Kajuga and his federation obviously did not take the gravity of the situation seriously. The four-year ban should remain and it should be a lesson that ignorance is not an excuse.

Kimberly Moszyk Coats