Kenyan marathon runner Diana Chemtai Kipyokei, victorious in Boston in 2021, has been suspended for six years for several anti-dopag rule violations.
The judgment was announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
After announcing its provisional suspension in October, the IAU on Tuesday made public a six-year sanction for tampering with evidence and using a banned product, triamcinolone, a glucocorticoid still authorized in certain forms in 2021, before to be totally banned since January in competition.
Diana Chemtai Kipyokei (28) won the Boston Marathon in October 2021, one of the six ‘major’ marathons, after which she was tested with triamcinolone. She then used false documents from a hospital to justify herself, an attitude which earned her a heavier sanction.
Kipyokei was stripped of her victory in Boston and will be suspended until June 2028.
The IAU also announced on Tuesday the five-year suspension of another Kenyan athlete, Purity Cherotich Rionoripo, for testing positive for furosemide (diuretic) and using false documents as well. Rionoripo (29) had notably won the Paris marathon in 2017 and that of Prague in 2021.
Kenyan athletics has been plagued by doping cases for several years, with more than 25 cases in 2022. In November, the government promised investments of five million dollars a year for five years to fund anti-doping (tests, personnel , surveys).
World athletics renewed in November its confidence in the local authorities and the Kenyan federation, which works together with the IAU.
/ATS