10K world record holder gets six-year doping ban

On Tuesday, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) banned 10K world record holder Rhonex Kipruto of Kenya for six years, due to irregularities in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP). The AIU revealed in a press release that Kipruto was involved in a deliberate and sophisticated doping regime over a long period to enhance his performance through blood doping.

The AIU has banned Rhonex Kipruto (Kenya) for 6 years, from 11 May 2023 for the Use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP case). DQ results from 2 September 2018 to 11 May 2023

Details here: https://t.co/BKq8zojQHB
Details here: https://t.co/aNSj06HMbM pic.twitter.com/iJVYlvXCcx

— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) June 5, 2024

The AIU found several abnormalities in Kipruto’s ABP around important competitions, including the Valencia Half Marathon in 2020 and the Kenyan Olympic Trials in 2021. Due to the circumstances of the case, the AIU Tribunal imposed the maximum period of ineligibility of six years and also disqualified Kipruto’s competitive results from Sept. 2, 2018, to May 11, 2023. This means the athlete’s 10K road-running world record of 26:24 at the 2020 Valencia 10K and his bronze medal from the men’s 10,000m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha will be annulled. He will not be eligible to compete until May 2029.

Kipruto is the second athlete in the last month from the 2019 World Championships 10,000m final to receive a doping suspension. His compatriot, Rodgers Kwemoi, was also given a six-year ban on May 17, for irregularities in his ABP. Both bans have Canadian implications, since Moh Ahmed, who finished sixth, will now move up to fourth place, with Kwemoi’s and Kipruto’s results from Doha DQ’d. 

The ABP, introduced in 2009 to fight blood doping, is an electronic record that collects an athlete’s biological data over time to detect the effects of doping indirectly. The ABP collects data including an athlete’s hemoglobin concentration and percentage of immature red blood cells (reticulocytes) and identifies unusual variations. The ABP is a critical tool in the quest to combat doping in elite athletes. Last year, the AIU reportedly collected more than 4,700 ABP tests.

Kipruto is the 82nd Kenyan athlete on the AIU’s Global Ineligible Persons List, surpassing Russia into the second spot of total doping suspensions per country. The only country with more is India (which has 86).