Wilson Kipsang handed four-year anti-doping ban

Wilson Kipsang, a former marathon world record holder, has been banned for four years for anti-doping violations. World Athletics said that the two-time London Marathon winner had missed four “whereabouts appointments” between April 2018 and 2019.

World Athletics guidelines stipulate that three failures within 12 months results in an automatic ban from the sport. Kipsang – who won the London and New York marathons in 2014 – told investigators that he missed a test in May last year because of a traffic incident. It was later found that Kipsang’s evidence, a photograph of the crash, was actually taken in August 2019.

The World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal announced that it had banned the Kenyan, 38, effective from 10 January, for “whereabouts failures and tampering by providing false evidence and witness testimony”.

The athlete engaged in fraudulent and deceitful conduct

– Athletics Integrity Unit

In a statement, the Athletics Integrity Unit said: “Evidence demonstrates overwhelmingly that the athlete was engaged in tampering or attempted tampering in breach of the IAAF rules”.

“The athlete engaged in fraudulent and deceitful conduct by providing deliberately misleading and false information to the AIU in an attempt to obstruct and delay the investigation into his explanation and/or prevent normal procedures from occurring, namely the recording of a Missed Test against him,” the AIU added in its ruling.

Kipsang had been provisionally suspended from athletics in January.

A bronze medallist at the London Olympics in 2012, Kipsang is the sixth fastest marathon runner in history, with a personal best of two hours, three minutes and 13 seconds. The only man to beat Eliud Kipchoge over marathon distance, Kipsang has the right to appeal against the decision