Top Kenyan athlete banned after doping results

Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto will lose his 2019 world 10 000m bronze medal and the 10km world record from 2020 after he was handed a six-year ban for doping. Kipruto’s result from September 2018 will henceforth be expunged and he will retain the world under-20 10 000m title from July 2018 in Tampere, Finland. The Nation reports that Kipruto’s ban came a day after the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya provisionally suspended 33 Kenyan athletes for various doping offences. It also came nine days after the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) also banned Kenya’s Josephine Chepkoech for seven years as a repeat offender and for the use of a prohibited substance, testosterone. Kipruto's sentence follows a disciplinary tribunal dismissal of his appeal, ruling that there were irregularities in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) resulting from doping. Kipruto was provisionally suspended on 11 May, last year for violating the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules after irregularities were detected in his ABP dating back to July 2018. He is now banned until 10 May 2029. However, Kipruto can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.