Top African Athlete Banned For Four Years

Former Marathon World record holder Wilson Kipsang has received a four-year ban for violating anti-doping rules, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday.

The 38-year-old Kenyan was punished for using a fake photo of a traffic accident to justify one of four missed whereabouts appointments.

Kipsang said that he had missed his appointment in May 2019 because of a traffic accident but AIU found out that the photograph produced as evidence was from an accident recorded on August 19, 2019.

“The World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal has banned long-distance runner Wilson Kipsang of Kenya for four years with effect from Jan. 10, 2020 for whereabouts failures and tampering by providing false evidence and witness testimony,” the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said in a statement.

“The athlete engaged in fraudulent and deceitful conduct by providing deliberately misleading and false information to the AIU in an attempt to obstruct and delay the investigation into his explanation and/or prevent normal procedures from occurring, namely the recording of a Missed Test against him,” it added in its ruling.

Kipsang was provisionally suspended in January for whereabouts failures and tampering in breach to World Athletics rules.

He joins forty-three Kenyan athletes, including the women’s 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong and three-time World 1,500m winner Asbel Kiprop, who have been banned this year.

Earlier in November, two top long distances athletes, Abraham Kiptum and Cyrus Rutto, were suspended for four years each by the AIU or using prohibited substances.