Shaheen will receive $1m for winning gold for oil rich Qatar

This is courtesy of a man who only a month ago was one of Kenya's top runners.

Saif Saeed Shaheen of Qatar, who used to be known as Stephen Cherono of Kenya, won a gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase at the world championships in Paris on Tuesday evening, narrowly beating his former team-mate Ezekiel Kemboi into second place.

For changing his nationality, and winning the steeplechase Saif Saeed Shaheen is reported to be receiving $1m and payments of $1,000 a month for life.

And Shaheen's win also ends Kenyan domination of the event in which the nation secured the previous six world titles and the last five Olympic gold medals.

Kenyan sports enthusiast Jack Okoth told the BBC that even being poor was no excuse for abandoning ones nationality, as Shaheen had done.

He should be proud of his country... What is he showing us Kenyans? That we are so desperate?

He added that athletes should not be allowed to change their citizenship.

Power of the dinar

The Kenyan media have also expressed dismay over Mr Shaheen's win after changing his nationality for what is regarded as financial gain.

"That some Kenyan sportsmen are willing to be regarded in the same light as champion horse breeds and agree to sell their birth rights to the power of the dinar speaks ill of us Kenyans," the Daily Nation's Sulubu Tuva wrote in Wednesday's sports section of the paper.

SAIF SAEED SHAHEEN Previous name: Stephen Cherono 2002: Gold medal at 2002 Commonwealth games 2003: Beat Hicham El-Guerrouj in Grand Prix Hoping for second gold in Paris at 5,000m Ends Kenya's 20-year dominance of steeplechase

At the end of the race, Shaheen wrapped himself in the maroon Qatari flag, but was ignored by the Kenyan athletes, including his brother Abraham who finished fifth.

Athletes changing their nationality for financial reasons is not a new phenomenon, but this latest case has re-opened the debate.

Kenyan and Qatari sports officials apparently used an International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) rule which allows an athlete to change his or her nationality and to compete for their new country as long as the athlete had not represented their original country in a sports event in the past year.

Market place

It also appears that Kenya agreed to Shaheen's emigration in return for a new athletics stadium at the training area of Eldoret in the mountains overlooking the Rift Valley, the area that produces many of Kenya's hugely talented runners.

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Athletics Kenya, the national amateur athletics organisation, is at pains to explain that it has not placed the country's athletes on the general market place.

"We are simply following the IAAF rules. There is no mention of money or other fishy incentives in the protocol that we signed with the Qatari Athletics Federation," said David Okeyo, the Secretary-General of Athletics Kenya.

On Friday, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge roundly condemned the practice as immoral if the move was purely for financial reasons, but he did not indicate how his committee would avoid similar situations in the future.