The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Disciplinary Tribunal has banned Olympic and three-time World 1,500 metres world champion Asbel Kiprop for four years for failing EPO test.
The ban is dated from February 3, 2018.
In 2017, Kiprop underwent an out-of-competition doping control in Iten where he tested positive for using erythropoietin, which boosts the production of red blood cells and encourages oxygen flow in the body.
Trying to prove his innocence, Kiprop hired lawyer Kitwa Kigen but soon after gave up the fight noting that he was financially crippled.
“I do not have money to meet legal fees and find qualified physicians who meet standards to give their opinion on my sample and discredit any possible unjust reason to why the sample resulted to analytical EPO finding,” he wrote on Facebook.
As these astonishing revelations unfolded last year, Kiprop seemed to be in emotional distress, which was compounded by a damming video leaked on social media of him groping a lady in his car.
Last month, his lawyer Katwa Kigen told court samples retrieved from his client yielded different results despite the fact that they were drawn from the same athlete, at the same lab.
But, it was established that the tests were done in different labs by different people.
“There is no justice in the world. Not every prisoner in jail is guilty,” said Kiprop after receiving the news. “I will consult my lawyer to see if I will appeal at CAS but no matter the outcome I will be back stronger.”