Kenyan athlete Wilson Kipsang has been handed a four-year ban after violating anti-doping rules.
The former marathon world record holder is said to have missed four “whereabouts appointments”.
Per the World Athletics’ rules, an athlete receives an automatic ban if he fails such appointments three times.
However, between April 2018 and May 2019, Kipsang missed doping tests without any tangible reasons.
In May 2019, he claimed to miss a test because of a traffic accident and even provided a photo of the crash.
Marathoner Wilson Kipsang banned for 4 years effective January this year.
— Grace Mwelu (@Gmwelu) July 3, 2020
This … pic.twitter.com/QX1DGVytKp
However, it was later found that the said photo was fake and was rather from August 2019.
In a statement the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal said it had banned the long-distance runner with effect from 10 January this year.
The Tribunal this was due to “whereabouts failures and tampering by providing false evidence and witness testimony”.
A separate statement from the Athletics Integrity Unit said “evidence demonstrates overwhelmingly that the athlete was engaged in tampering or attempted tampering in breach of the IAAF rules”.
Kipsang is a two-time London marathon winner and also emerged as a bronze medallist at the 2012 London Olympics.
