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Former marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang has been provisionally sanctioned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for whereabouts failures as well as apparent tampering or attempted tampering with samples.

When he set the world record in 2013, he had bettered fellow Kenyan Patrick Makau’s 2:03:38 performance that he set in Berlin in 2011, with a 2:03:23 finish time. He is the only athlete to defeat current world record holder Eliud Kipchoge at the marathon distance. Kipsang hung onto the record for one year, when Dennis Kimetto became the first athlete to run under the 2:03 benchmark, by running 2:02:57. Kimetto’s record lasted four years until Kipchoge took it in 2018 at 2:01:39 – all from the Berlin course.

Kipsang currently holds four of the 25-fastest marathon performances all-time including the 11th fastest and eight of the top-83. Only eight marathon runners have run faster, Kipchoge three times, Kenenisa Bekele twice, as well as Birhanu Legesse, Mosinet Geremew, Dennis Kimetto, Geoffrey Mutai, Emmanuel Mutai and Moses Mosop.

Four times Kipsang has run under 2:04 and eight times he has run under 2:05.

He is a two-time London Marathon winner. He also won Berlin, New York and Tokyo.

Fellow 2013 World Marathon Majors winner Rita Jeptoo was banned for four years in 2014 for EPO, the blood-booster.

Volare Sports, his agency, maintain that he has not failed any tests.

Under anti-doping regulations, athletes must inform testing authorities of their whereabouts for a one-hour window of every day.

Three failures in 12 months – not being present at the said time, or filing inaccurate or incomplete information, counts as one failure – leads to an automatic ban.