The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) banned Kenya’s road race runner Philemon Lokedi on October 10, 2022 for a period of three years after he was found guilty of engaging in doping.
The world governing body disclosed that they discovered presence of testosterone in the blood samples provided by the 30-year-old.
"The AIU has banned Kenya’s Philemon Kacheran Lokedi for 3 years from 8 July 2022 for the Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Testosterone) (Article 2.1 and Article 2.2)," read a statement from AIU.
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According to the AIU, Lokedi has accepted the consequences of his actions and will not be taking the matter to the disciplinary tribunal.
The AIU also revealed that Lokedi's results from April 27, 2022 will not count following the verdict.
The 2021 Valencia Marathon third-place finisher will therefore have to forfeit any medal, titles, points prizes, appearance money and awards he received from the mentioned period.
However, despite the decision, Lokedi and the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) have an option of filing an appeal to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Philemon could have been slapped with a four-year ban if he had failed to admit the violation and accept the sanction.
More than 10 Kenyan athletes have been banned in 2022 for doping.
Emmanuel Saina, 2018 Nanjing Marathon winner Felix Kipchumba Korir and former World Athletics Under 20 Championship 3,000m silver medalist Lilian Kasait are some of the high profile runners who have been banned.
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