Former Olympics and three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop will know his fate in three weeks when a ruling of the doping case brought against him by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is made.
Kiprop has maintained his innocence, urging AIU, the body formed by IAAF to combat doping, to draw a line over his case that has dragged since May 2018 when he was identified as the middle distance running superstar who tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO.
“I hope the Athletics Integrity Unit will deliver a good ruling and that there will be no further delay.
My career has stalled and my reputation ruined. I hope the truth will prevail,” said Kiprop, who delivered gold medals for Kenya in 1,500m at the 2011, 2013 and 2015 World Championships.
British publication Daily Mail delivered the bombshell that Kiprop’s A and B samples had tested positive for EPO on May 3, 2018 with the AIU confirming two days later in one of the most intriguing doping cases in the history of the body.
Kiprop, in a statement through his lawyer Katwa Kigen, had responded to the shocking reports by sensationally accusing two Doping Control Officers (DCOs) who visited his home of soliciting bribes.
In a three-page statement, Kiprop claimed the two DCOs, Simon Karugu and Paul Scott, whom he was familiar with from past tests, came to his home in Iten on November 27, 2017 having notified him of their intended visit a day earlier.
“I remain perplexed on how my innocent sample could turn positive on the only time when money was extorted from me.
It is not beyond my suspicion that my sample turned positive because I might have remitted less money than I was expected to,” Kiprop said in the statement.
Meanwhile, AIU has handed two Kenyan athletes Hillary Yego and Samson Kagia four and two-year bans respectively for having been found culpable of using prohibited substances.
Yego was found guilty of using blood booster Norandrosterone while Kagia used Methylprednisolone popularly known as Method.