Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang, former marathon world-record holder and bronze medalist at the 2012 Olympics, has been provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures and tampering with samples, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on its Twitter account on Friday.
Under anti-doping regulations, athletes have to inform testing authorities of their whereabouts for a one hour window of every day and three failures — not being present at the said time — within 12 months leads to an automatic ban.
No further details of the offenses were immediately available from the AIU.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Kipsang, 37, is a two-time winner of the London Marathon and has a personal best of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 13 seconds — making him the equal sixth-fastest man in history.
His time of 2:03.23 at the 2013 Berlin Marathon stood as the world record for a year.
He also won the 2014 New York Marathon and 2017 Tokyo Marathon.
“It is disappointing to hear another Kenyan, and a top one at that, becoming a victim of the doping scourge, but at the same time, we at Athletics Kenya take the development positively as we support the AIU in its effort to eradicate this scourge, which has taken a heavy toll on our athletes and image as a country,” Athletics Kenya executive committee member Barnaba Korir said.
“I am still in shock and terribly disappointed by the announcement,” Athletics Kenya representative Micah Chemos said. “Each day I wake up to some nasty news and reports involving our athletes, and this is in spite of the numerous seminars and education outreach we conduct around the country on this subject. This is a big name, an elite athlete, who should not just know better, but be a role model to the younger athletes.”
Kenya was among the nations placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency compliance watch list in 2016 and Kipsang is just the latest Kenyan athlete to be charged.
They include 2008 Olympic 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, former Boston and Chicago marathon winner Rita Jeptoo, and 2016 Olympic marathon champion and former London Marathon winner Jemimah Sumgong.
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