blow to Kenya as another World 800 bronze medallist is handed a 4-year ban

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Will this kill Kenyan history of breaking records in the world marathon championships? or does it mean that some of our athletes have been doping to win the marathons? These remain questions to be answered as Kenyan world 800 metres bronze medallist Kipyegon Bett gets a hand of  a four-year ban for doping.

The IAAF Athletics Integrity Unit said this through a statement issued on Friday via its official twitter account.

Bett, 20, refused to allow a urine sample to be taken in February and then in July, when a sample was taken, he tested positive for the prohibited substance Erythropoeitin (EPO), an endurance-boosting hormone, the integrity unit said.

Unless he appeals, Bett will be suspended until August 2022.

The AIU handles integrity and doping issues for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

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Bett is the latest Kenyan to fail a drugs test. A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report said between 2004 and Aug. 1, 2018, as many as 138 athletes from the east African nation tested positive for banned substances, 113 in competition.

Last month, another Kenyan marathon runner Samuel Kalalei, who won the Athens marathon last year November, was banned for four years after testing positive for blood-booster EPO, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said.

EPO (Erythroprotein) is a glycoprotein secreted by the kidney which stimulates the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow.

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Kalalei’s urine sample, which was collected after the Rotterdam Marathon in April, had returned positive for EPO. The 23-year-old was provisionally suspended by AIU, the independent agency of world athletics ruling body IAAF, on June 4.

Do you think these continued bans will affect Kenya’s athletics?

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