Kenyan marathoner Cornelius Kibet Kiplagat has been slapped with a five-year ban from competition after inadvertently injecting himself with a banned substance.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) confirmed Kiplagat's plight on Monday, September 29, revealing that the 31-year-old tested positive for two prohibited substances, EPO and CERA.
EPO (Erythropoietin) and CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator) are synthetic substances that stimulate the production of red blood cells.
In medicine, they are used to treat anaemia, particularly in patients with kidney disease. However, in sports, they are prohibited because of their performance-enhancing properties since they transport more oxygen to the muscles, boosting an athlete's endurance.
According to the AIU, the athlete admitted to the use of substances after providing an out-of-competition urine sample on July 29.
But it was the manner in which Kiplagat got the banned substances into his system that left questions, as in an interview with AIU investigators on September 19, he admitted to purchasing and injecting the substances after overhearing fellow athletes say that EPO and CERA helped reduce lactic acid in the muscles after intense physical activity.
Without trying to understand whether the substances were actually approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code, he decided to try them.
The athlete claimed that on July 27, two days before his test, he approached a bus conductor and gave him Ksh5,000 to buy the substances from a pharmacy in Eldoret. The substances were delivered to a roadside vendor, where Kiplagat picked them up and allegedly injected himself on the same day.
AIU has since determined that the athlete did not have a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for either substance, making his injection a violation of the WADA code.
The fact that Kiplagat used multiple banned substances meant that the AIU found that aggravating circumstances applied, and the standard four-year ban was increased to six years.
"The Athlete has failed to establish that he did not knowingly commit the Anti-Doping Rule Violations. Therefore, the period of Ineligibility to be imposed is a period of six (6) years," AIU said in a statement.
However, because of his early admission and cooperation, the suspension was reduced by a year, resulting in a five-year ban effective September 11, 2025, when his provisional suspension began.
Kiplagat's more recent race was the 4th Zurich Barcelona Marathon, where he took second place with a time of 2:04:54.
Besides the ban, Kiplagat’s results from July 29, 2025, onwards have been disqualified, and he must forfeit any medals, points, prize money, or appearance fees earned since that date.
