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Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala and two-time world champion Asbel Kiprop are among the athletes.
Kenya has been known to produce some of the greatest athletes from across the globe but recently, the athletes have been in the spotlight due to anti-doping rule violations and in this article, we dive deep into some of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test.
Due to the high rise of doping cases, the country has been on the brink of being banned by World Athletics but has managed to escape the harsh punishment by implementing strict rules to curb the menace.
Kenya is now in Category A (having the highest doping risk to the sport) due to the high numbers of some of the greatest Kenyan athletes who have failed the doping tests.
Greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test
11) Wilson Kipsang
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The former world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang was banned for four years after a series of anti-doping violations – including using a fake photograph of an overturned lorry to justify a missed test.
The double London Marathon winner and London 2012 bronze medallist was punished for four whereabouts failures between April 2018 and May 2019.
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His next stop will be at the National Championships to be staged at the Nyayo National Stadium.
Three such failures within 12 months led to an automatic ban, however, he had his sanction increased after it was ruled he had tampered with the investigation by providing “false evidence and witness testimony”.
10) Betty Lempus
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Betty Lempus found herself among the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test when she tested positive for the banned metabolite Triamcinolone Acetonide and then falsified medical documents to explain the presence of the metabolite.
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Lempus is best known for breaking the Paris women's half-marathon course record on September 5, 2021, and that is the date that a sample she gave tested positive for the banned substance. She was disqualified from the Paris half-marathon and all races since then.
She was slapped with a two-year ban for the doping violation and four for the attempt to cover it up. However, a year was subtracted after she admitted to lying and using the prohibited substance.
9) Marius Kipserem
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Marius Kipserem is also one of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test. Athletics Integrity Unit announced in October last year, that Kipserem’s urine sample collected in an out-of-competition test conducted on August 17, 2022 in Kapsabet tested positive for a banned substance - erythropoietin (EPO).
While the doping offense attracted a sanction of four years, AIU explained the athlete’s ban was reduced to three years after he acknowledged committing the crime. The two-time Rotterdam Marathon champion will return to the competitive scene in 2025.
9) Purity Rionoripo
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The 2017 Paris Marathon champion Purity Rionoripo made it to the list of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test after testing positive for the banned diuretic furosemide.
Due to the offense, Rionoripo was slapped with a five-year ban in 2022. The Furosemide was found in Rionoripo's urine in an out-of-competition test on May 30, 2022 in Kenya.
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She was among 20 sportsmen and women sanctioned for doping rules violations after a change in the 2021 Anti-doping Code that allows ADAK to release the names of those who violate anti-doping rules immediately.
According to World Anti-doping Agency, Chesang was tested upon arrival in Sierre-Zinal, Switzerland on August 13, 2022, but her results turned out negative. Although she tested negative at the race, she had a previous positive test in May 2022.
8) Jemimah Sumgong
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Jemimah Sumgong, the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the marathon, was slapped with a doping ban in 2017 after testing positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO.
Sumgong denied the ruling and claimed she must have been given the banned substance by an "impostor" during a doctors' strike at a hospital in Nairobi. She said she was visiting the hospital for treatment for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
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Tuwei said the sponsorship was a big boost to the event's prize money and operations.
However, the story was found to be false after a joint investigation between the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya and the Athletics Integrity Unit discovered there was no record of her hospital visit.
At the time, the disciplinary panel was chaired by Michael Beloff QC, and, he doubled her ban. She had started that sanction in April 2017 but the new, extended ban started in 2019, meaning she was effectively banned for 10 years.
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7) Esther Macharia
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Singapore Marathon champion Esther Macharia was handed a four-year doping ban after being found to have used the banned substance testosterone which offers an unfair advantage to athletes by boosting their muscle mass and strength, endurance levels, and faster recovery from injuries.
The drug is commonly used by unscrupulous athletes intent on masking the presence of other banned substances in their bloodstream.
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Tanak also promised to do that while wearing one of Kipchoge’s marathon shoes that were gifted to him while visiting Kipchoge’s training camp at Kaptagat in Gishu County, in southwestern Kenya.
Macharia was captured after an in-competition test at the Singapore Marathon last December but she defended herself saying she suspected that the findings had been caused by her ingestion of (unspecified) medication to treat joint pain and that she had not used that medication to improve her performance.
She neither availed herself for an interview nor accepted her offense hence she was banned for four years and that is how she made it to the growing list of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test.
6) Mark Otieno
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Mark Otieno, a multiple national 100m champion, found himself on the list of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test after testing positive for the anabolic steroid methasterone during the delayed 2020 Olympics in July, 2021. The news came as he was preparing to compete in the 100m heats.
Otieno blamed a contaminated nutritional supplement for his positive test but promised to come back in 2023, bigger and better.
5) Abraham Kiptum
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Abraham Kiptum was handed a four-year ban by the AIU over an athlete biological passport (ABP) violation. He had been provisionally suspended back in April 2018, two days before he had been due to compete in the London Marathon.
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The ABP program collects and compares biological data to spot discrepancies over time, which can indicate possible doping.
Kiptum was charged in connection with "abnormalities in the hematological module of his ABP", that were alleged to have indicated blood manipulation but he denied having used any prohibited substances or methods.
However, the Tribunal ultimately ruled in favour of the AIU and that's how he made it to the list of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test.
4) Diana Kipyokei
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The 2020 N Kolay Istanbul Marathon champion Diana Kipyokei was slapped with a six-year ban and had her 2021 Boston Marathon title stripped after testing positive for a drug test and then providing false information to anti-doping officials.
The 29-year-old tested positive for a metabolite of triamcinolone acetonide (a corticosteroid) from a sample given after she won the Boston Marathon in October 2021.
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His next stop will be at the National Championships to be staged at the Nyayo National Stadium.
Kipyokei then provided false and/or misleading information in trying to explain her positive test, “including fake documentation which she alleged came from a hospital.” She chose not to challenge the charges and with that, she found herself in the list of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test.
3) Asbel Kiprop
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The news of three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop shocked the whole world since it was unexpected. He found himself on the list of greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test after he tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test in Kenya on November 2017. His suspension was backdated to Feb. 3, 2018, when he was provisionally suspended.
However, Kiprop had argued that his urine sample, which was taken out of competition, could have been tampered with but the AIU, said they were satisfied that there had been no interference and an IAAF Disciplinary Tribunal suspended him for four years effective February 2018.
He has since tried coming back into competition but has struggled to be at par with the upcoming athletes who are far stronger.
2) Elijah Manangoi
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The news of Elijah Manangoi making it to the list of greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test also came as a huge surprise to the whole world. Manangoi, a former world champion, was handed a two-year ban for anti-doping violations after missing three tests under whereabouts rules.
Manangoi missed tests on July 3, November 12, and December 22 in 2019, and his ban was backdated to start on December 22 which was the date of the third whereabouts failure. He served his ban and is slowly coming back into competition. In a previous interview, he revealed that his main target is qualifying for the World Championships in Budapest Hungary.
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1) Ferdinand Omanyala
Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala made it to the list of the greatest Kenyan athletes to fail the doping test after testing positive for glucocorticoid betamethasone, a banned substance. He was sanctioned with a 14-month ban in 2017.
At the same time, his coach, Duncan Ayiemba, was also sanctioned with a two-year ban for ‘administration or attempted administration of betamethasone’.
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Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala and Commonwealth Games 800m champion Mary Moraa are among the stars who will be in action starting tomorrow.
He defied all odds and came back stronger, something that many banned athletes fail to achieve. He has since proven to be unbeatable by setting the pace of Kenyan sprinters and placing the country on the world map.
He was once a forgotten treasure in the country but he has now stamped authority and cemented his place. Omanyala remains to be a definition of 'you can always bounce back from anything.'
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