Kenya’s record holder for the 10km road race, Rhonex Kipruto, has received a six-year ban due to irregularities detected in his Athlete Biological Passport.
The 24-year-old will lose his record, achieved in Valencia in 2020, as well as the bronze medal in the 10,000m event at the 2019 World Championships.
He will remain banned until May 2029, following his provisional suspension on May 11, 2023, for breaching anti-doping regulations.
An Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is an electronic record that monitors an athlete’s biomarkers throughout their career. Significant changes in these markers raise suspicions of doping among officials.
“The Tribunal rejected Kipruto’s defence, concluding the ’cause for the abnormalities in the ABP is more likely to be due to blood manipulation’ such as through the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rEPO),” said the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which has enforced the ban.
“There was ‘no other plausible explanation’ for the abnormal values.”
The disciplinary panel said it was “comfortably satisfied” the athlete had committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV).
Kipruto can appeal against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.