Rhonex Kipruto, aged 24, has been handed a six-year ban for doping, announced the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Wednesday. Consequently, the Kenyan athlete will forfeit his 10 kilometers road race world record and a bronze medal from the world championships.
Kipruto, renowned for clinching bronze in the 10,000 meters at the 2019 world championships, faced provisional suspension for an anti-doping violation in May last year. His ban extends until May 2029.
The athlete set the 10km road race world record in Valencia in 2020 and triumphed in the 10,000 meters at the 2019 Stockholm Diamond League. However, both achievements will now be annulled.
A Disciplinary Tribunal concluded that irregularities were present in Kipruto's Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), indicating discrepancies that can suggest the influence of doping.
"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)," the AIU said, adding that there was no other plausible explanation for the abnormal values.
The 24-year-old had denied the Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) charge but the panel said it was "comfortably satisfied" that the Kenyan was involved in a "deliberate and sophisticated doping regime over a long period of time".
Kipruto still has the option of appealing against the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
(With Reuters inputs)
