Kenyan athlete Joyce Chepkirui has suffered another blow after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld a ruling made against her.
The 33-year-old long-distance runner who is also the former Commonwealth Games champion has been banned for four years over an anti-doping violation.
Chepkirui had been provisionally suspended from competition by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in July 2019 for an Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) violation.
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During that period, investigations were underway checking on the alleged drugs detected in her blood.
In August 2020, the former African women 10,000m champion appealed against her by ADAK at the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) who ruled to dismiss the matter and the copy of the appealed decision was sent to AIU.
The athletes' four-year ban means that all her results achieved between April 6, 2016, to August 2017 are nullified with the ban commencing from June 28, 2019.
The Anti Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), was ordered to pay Ksh 247,000 to World Athletics as a contribution to the legal fees for missing Chepkirui’s hearing at the CAS.
“The standard sanction to be imposed on an athlete for the use of a Prohibited Method (as in this case) is four years unless the Athlete can establish that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional. The burden of proof for demonstrating that an ADRV was not intentional lies on the Athlete.
“In this case, the Athlete has failed to meet her respective burden to establish that she acted without intent. As a result, the Sole Arbitrator finds that the Athlete is ineligible for a period of four years,” Part of the ruling read.
Kenya in the recent past has been receiving various bans to athletes resulting in the Athletics Kenya federation being grouped in category A ranking.
Being in the category A ranking means that no athlete will be added to the team representing Kenya, if their name was not present in the list that was sent to Athletic Integrity Union(AIU) before the December 31, 2021 deadline.
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