Not another one! World 10km road race record holder Rhonex Kipruto suspended over doping

ATHLETICS Not another one! World 10km road race record holder Rhonex Kipruto suspended over doping

Joel Omotto • 13:00 - 17.05.2023

The 23-year-old is staring at a ban after being issued with a notice of charge over the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP).

World 10km road race record holder Rhonex Kipruto has been provisionally suspended over a doping violation by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

Kipruto is the latest top Kenyan athlete to be sanctioned over the growing vice with the AIU issuing him with a notice of charge over the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP).

Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is the monitoring of selected biological parameters over time that may indirectly reveal effects of doping on the body. 

This approach allows anti-doping organisations to generate individual, longitudinal profiles for each athlete and to look for any fluctuations that may indicate the use of performance-enhancing drugs or methods.

“The AIU has provisionally suspended Rhonex Kipruto (Kenya) for the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP),” the AIU said via a Twitter post on Wednesday.

The charge will come as a big blow not just to the athlete but to Kenya as he has been seen as one of the future long distance greats, following his impressive performances since he burst onto the scene. 

Kipruto clocked 26:24 in Valencia in January 2020 to break the world 10km road race record of 26:39 that had been set by Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei in the same Spanish city in the previous year.

Full details of the former World Under-20 10,000m world champion’s offence are still yet to be known but he faces a minimum of a four-year ban if found culpable. 

The suspension of the 2019 world 10,000m bronze medalist comes just one day after another Kenyan long-distance runner Nicholas Kosimbei was suspended on Tuesday for using prohibited substance Trimetazidi.