Doping: Kenyan Athlete Gets Four Year Ban

Former Olympic and World 1,500 meters champion, Asbel Kiprop, has been banned for four years after testing positive to banned performance-enhancing substances.

The IAAF Disciplinary Tribunal indicated that the ban takes effect from February 3, 2018, meaning the athlete will be eligible to compete after the 2021 Oregon IAAF World Championship.

Kiprop was suspended after his samples tested positive to banned blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition test in Iten in May 2018.

He had given out a urine sample only for it to come back positive for the blood-boosting agent that violates international doping rules.

Kiprop, the third-fastest man in history over 1,500 meters, was world champion in 2011, 2013 and 2015 and promoted to Olympic gold at the 2008 Games after Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi tested positive for doping.

He now loses all the honors he has achieved in his career since November 27, 2017.

In the last six years, about 50 Kenyan athletes have failed drug tests a move that has forced IAAF to rank it among the countries with high risk and with a potential of its athletes taking banned doping substances.

Kenya has been placed on the watch list of four member federations alongside Ethiopia, Belarus, and Ukraine, which pushes their risk level to high.