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Three-time World Athletics champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya will return to racing the 1500m distance in 2022 after serving a four-year ban. He will, however, start with the 800m event.
Kiprop was accused of using EPO, however, steadfastly maintains his innocence and in turn accused doping control officers of framing him.
At the time, the Athletics Integrity Unit disagreed with his argument.
Drama ensued
“I was falsely accused of doping. But I have accepted my fate, served my time and now I am ready to return to the track,” he told the media.
On social media, Kiprop threatened to take his own life in a plea for help and what he referred to as a return of justice.
He wrote, “I pray to National Police Service to dismiss me now, before I use their machinery to earn myself justice. IAAF come take your medals.”
The social media posts were eventually taken down.
Kiprop was caught in another saga.
In this apparent revenge video, Kiprop was seen groping and kissing his training partner’s wife. Apparently, it was Nancy Rotich Chepsiya, wife to Henry Rotich, who was rumoured to tell authorities of Kiprop’s apparent drug cheating.
After the video aired on YouTube (since removed) Rotich was apparently hospitalised in Eldoret Hospital after a suicide attempt.
Being set up
In November 2017, Kiprop alleges that he was warned that he should expect a doping control officer at his door the next day.
Advance notice is prohibited.
Kiprop alleges that he gave the doping control officer money, thinking that the request that he had made was perhaps to purchase tea or fuel for the car. It was an alleged extortion attempt, according to Kiprop. In Kenya, as in many places in the world, small gifts of cash are customary. He thought nothing of it.
Kiprop’s test results came back positive for EPO in February 2018. EPO is a popular blood-booster for distance athletes who may seek an unfair advantage. He was subsequently suspended in March of 2018, perhaps his “gift” wasn’t big enough.
A similar story has surfaced by another Kenyan athlete
Steven Kip (not his real name to protect his identity) is a distance runner from Kenya who claims that there was an attempt to extort him by a doping control officer. He claims that it happened sometime during 2019.
Kip is a competitive athlete having run 13-low for the 5,000m and had accomplished other similar performances in the 10,000m and half-marathon distance events.
Shortly after the alleged rendezvous, he was informed by Athletics Kenya that he was suspended. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) published the suspension on its website.
Asked to describe what took place he said, “it was on October 13, 2019 at 11.00 am. I received a call from an unknown and anonymous person claiming to be a WADA representative who said the he was supposed to test me. He later came and took my blood samples. The results came out positive two months later.
“He again called me and asked for a meeting on the above issue. To my surprise, he told me he had the ability to modify the results on a price of $5000USD which was actually convincing but I did not agree since I believed I was clean.”
With somewhere between 60 and 70 Kenyan athletes banned for alleged doping offences one may wonder if this happens more often. Kenyans have also missed tests or have had Athlete Biological Passport anomalies.
As for Kiprop, he has kept his head down, has done the training and looks to be competitive again, especially for the 2022 World Athletics Championships that will be taking place in Eugene, Oregon this summer.
His personal bests are 1:43.15 in the 800m, 3:26.69 in the 1500m, and 3:48.50 in the mile (1609m). His 1500m best makes him the third-fastest at the distance all-time behind only Morocco’s Hicham El Gerrouj and Kenyan-American Bernard Lagat who was running for Kenya at the time. In Rome, in 1998 Gerrouj ran the current world record of 3:26.00.