Rhonex Kipruto Receives Six-Year Ban for Doping, to Lose World Records
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Wednesday that Kenyan athlete Rhonex Kipruto has been handed a six-year ban
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Wednesday that Kenyan athlete Rhonex Kipruto has been handed a six-year ban for doping. This decision will strip the 24-year-old of his 10-kilometres road race world record and a world championship bronze medal.
Kipruto, who secured the bronze in the 10,000 metres at the 2019 World Championships, was provisionally suspended in May last year for an anti-doping violation. His ban will last until May 2029.
In 2020, Kipruto set the 10km road race world record in Valencia and triumphed in the 10,000 metres at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2019. These achievements will now be invalidated.
The Disciplinary Tribunal found irregularities in Kipruto’s Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which can indicate doping through abnormal biological values.
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“The Tribunal rejected Kipruto’s defence, concluding that the abnormalities in the ABP are more likely to be due to blood manipulation, such as the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rEPO),” the AIU stated. They added that there was no other plausible explanation for the irregular values.
Despite Kipruto denying the Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) charge, the panel concluded it was “comfortably satisfied” that the Kenyan athlete was involved in a “deliberate and sophisticated doping regime over a long period of time.”
Kipruto retains the right to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
