Athletics Kenya sanctions seven athletes for doping

A new method of mass spectrometry could detect some drugs previously undetectable.

A new method of mass spectrometry could detect some drugs previously undetectable.

Seven Kenyan athletes, including two women sprinters sent home from the World championships in Beijing, have been handed bans ranging from two to four years for doping.

Sprinters Francisca Koki and Joyce Zakari, who were provisional suspended by the IAAF and sent home from the world championships in August, were each given a four-year ban after being found guilty of using a prohibited substance, Furosemide.

Two-time world cross-country star Emily Chebet will also serve a four-year ban for the same offence. Marathon runner Agnes Cheserek tested positive for Norandrosterone and will serve four years while three other distance runners, Bernard Mwendia, Judy Kimuge and Lilian Moraa Mariita, each received two-year bans. Mariita,the 2012 Miami half-marathon winner,was caught doping with EPO.

RELATED: Protesters occupy Athletics Kenya

Kenyan athletes barricaded the Athletics Kenya (AK) headquarters in Nairobi earlier this week in a protest against corruption and lack of effort to fight doping in the sport.

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