The World Athletics governing body, the Athletics Integrity Union (AIU), has banned Kenyan Marathoner Sarah Chepchirchir for four years after failing a doping test.
AIU announced the ban on Thursday, January 11 via its website, stating that the athlete had already been notified about the allegations levelled against her.
Chepchirchir was first banned for four years on November 19, 2019, after abnormalities were found in her blood passport.
The test was conducted after she won the 2017 Tokyo Marathon. AIU thus backdated the ban to start in 2018, forcing the athlete to miss out on racing for years.
Before her ban, she represented Kenya twice in international competitions in 2011.
Two years later, she set a personal best record in the Paris 20 Kilometre race covering it in 1hr 5min 3sec.
Chepchirchir has yet to appeal here ban which comes a week after the president of the World Athletics, Sebastian Coe visited Kenya on January 5.
While in Kenya, Coe, a double Olympic Gold medalist, spoke on Kenya's doping menace with over 70 athletes suspended in 2023 after testing positive for banned drugs.
However, Kenya still managed to escape a total ban contrary to Russia.
"What is the difference between our approach to Kenya and the approach that we took with Russia? Let me make this clear, these are two very different cases.
"As was evident in the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) report, those (Russian cases) coverups were organised at the state authority level. There is no suggestion that is the case in Kenya, in fact, quite the reverse," Coe explained.
In November last year, Sports CS Ababu Namwamba vowed to shut down athletes’ training camps flouting anti-doping regulations. Namwamba accused the camps, coaches, and agents of ruining the careers of innocent athletes without their knowledge.
“Training camps, coaches, and agents we are coming for you. We’ll deal with suspects like criminals,” Ababu stated at a press briefing at Eliud Kipchoge Sports Complex in Kapsabet.
