Rio 2016 Olympics: Kenya agrees 'roadmap' to anti-doping compliance

Kenyan minister for sport Hassan Wario was part of the delegation that travelled to Canada

Kenya's government has agreed a "roadmap" that increases the likelihood of the country's athletes competing at the Olympic Games in Rio this summer.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) declared Kenya "non-compliant" on 12 May after it missed two deadlines to show it is tackling cheating.

If Kenya remains in violation of Wada, the International Olympic Committee could ban its athletes from the Games.

But Kenya's government said it "should have representation" at Rio 2016.

Were the country to be absent from the Games, it would mean some of the world's top athletes missing out on potential medal chances.

They include David Rudisha, who would be denied the chance to defend the 800m title he won at the London 2012 Games.

The country topped the medal table at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing with seven gold medals.

After discussions at Wada's headquarters in Montreal, the organisation's director-general David Howman said he was confident Kenya could make the necessary changes to become compliant "very quickly".

"If the laws are amended as agreed today, I have no doubt Wada's compliance review committee would recommend the foundation board revokes Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya's non-compliance status," he added.

Kenya introduced new criminal laws as part of an anti-doping bill in April, creating a national testing authority and making doping an offence punishable by imprisonment.

That was widely expected to satisfy Wada, which had demanded changes after 40 Kenyan athletes failed drugs tests in a period since 2011.

David Were, chair of the Kenya parliament sports and welfare committee, told the BBC at the time he was "shocked" when Wada - which placed Kenya on a "watch-list" in February - instead downgraded it to "non-compliant".

A statement from the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya said Wada "commended Kenya for acting in good faith and demonstrating strong commitment by developing its anti-doping law; and, acknowledged that more than 80% of the law was in fact compliant with the code".