Rhonex Kipruto, 10 km world record holder, suspended by AIU

Athlete had suspicious examination based on biological passport and is out of competitions

Rhonex Kipruto won the 10K Valencia Ibercaja in 2020 and broke the world record (Photo publicity)

the kenyan Rhonex Kiprutocurrent 10 km world record holder (26:24 – Valencia 2020) was temporarily suspended from competitions for the AIU (Athletics Integrity Unit) for having a suspicious examination based on the biological passport protocol. The athlete is still entitled to make his defense, but if he fails to have a plausible justification, he will be suspended for a period yet to be determined by World Athletics rules.

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How does the biological passport work? All anti-doping tests performed by athletes, whether in-competition or out-of-competition, are stored in order to establish a standard. If a new anti-doping exam shows any change that draws the attention of the examiners, the athlete is suspended on suspicion of doping. The last competition in Kipruto was in Germany, in an event just for Adidas athletes, the Adizero Road to Records, and he was 4th in the 10 km. There is no way of knowing if it was in this competition that his blood test was detected as altered.

The passport is important because it was a response from anti-doping entities to the maxim that doping always comes before anti-doping.

It has been a long time since a Kenyan athlete of the highest caliber like Rhonex Kipruto it was not suspended. And that doesn’t help Kenya at all, a country that has already been threatened with being temporarily banned from international competitions at the end of 2022, due to the very high number of athletes being either suspended or banned recently. It just wasn’t, because a conversation took place between World Athletics and the Kenyan federation in which the latter proposed to tighten anti-doping control in the country.

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What is the AIU (Athletics Integrity Unit): It is an entity that follows the World Athletics rules for anti-doping, but that is totally independent of the WA so that there is no interference from any federations or actions of athletes in its work. More information here.