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Two more Kenyan athletes suspended over doping

Tuesday July 09 2019
kenyan

Kenya's Joyce Chepkirui celebrates winning the final of the women's 10,000m athletics event at Hampden Park during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on July 29, 2014. PHOTO | ADRIAN DENNIS | AFP

The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth and Africa 10,000m champion Joyce Chepkirui and long distance runner John Jacob Kibet Kendagor are the latest Kenyans to be suspended for doping offences.

Chepkirui, who also won the Amsterdam and Honolulu marathons in 2015 besides finishing 10th in Boston Marathon the same year, has been suspend by Athletes integrity Unit (AIU) after some discrepancy in her Athletes Biological Passport (ABP).

Chepkirui, the 2011 African Games 1,500m silver medallist and 2012 Africa Cross Country senior women champion, has not competed this year.

Chepkirui, who grew up in the then Buret District of the Rift Valley Province, made her first international appearance at the 2007 African Junior Athletics Championships, where she came fifth in the 1,500 metres.

The 30-year-old made her debut in the half marathon in Benidorm that November and finished second. She tried the 3,000 metres steeplechase in 2008, but managed only a fifth place finish at the national junior championships.

She changed her focus to road races the following year. She travelled to Spain and had top five finishes in a number of races, highlighted by a win in Almodóvar del Río with a time of 1:11:47 hours. At the end of the year, she placed fourth in the 15K at Kenya's Baringo Half Marathon.

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Kendagor, who finished sixth at 2017 Seoul Marathon before settling second in Hamburg and Istanbul marathons the same year, has been reprimanded for "evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection."

Kendagor competed last in Istanbul Marathon in November last year, finishing fifth.

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