Kenyan distance runners Joyce Chepkirui and Jacob Kendagor suspended over doping

World class Kenyan athletes caught in drug scandal

Mumbi Mutuko

July 9, 2019 5:59 PM

Drug saga for Kenyan athletes

Kenyan runners at Boston Marathon

Two Kenyan distance runners have been temporarily suspended and charged in doping cases.

They include the 2014 African and Commonwealth Games 10,000 meters champion Joyce Chepkirui and Jacob Kendagor.

Track and field's Athletics Integrity Unit says Chepkirui's case relates to results in her biological passport, and Kendagor is charged with avoiding to give a sample.

The latest round of doping cases involving runners from Kenya in recent weeks follows a four-year ban for 2016 Olympics marathon silver medalist Eunice Kirwa.

Joyce Chepkirui Pulse Live Kenya

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Chepkirui won the 2015 Amsterdam Marathon, and in 2016 placed third in Boston and fourth in New York.

The 34-year-old Kendagor ran a lifetime best 2 hours, 7 minutes, 33 seconds at the 2017 Seoul Marathon.

Kenya was among the countries placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA’s) compliance watch list in 2016.

Anti-doping rules

Joyce Chepkirui at Commonwealth Games Pulse Live Kenya

Kenyan athletes were required to have at least three doping tests in the 10 months before the world championship or Olympics under tougher new anti-doping rules by the IAAF.

Athletics Kenya passed a declaration that any athlete who was sanctioned for abusing banned substances would not represent the country even after serving IAAF suspensions.

About 60 have been sanctioned for anti-doping rule violations in the past five years.

Mumbi Mutuko