(Reuters) – Kenyan distance runner James Kibet has been handed a four-year ban for anti-doping violations, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday.
Kibet was provisionally suspended after his urine sample collected at the Corsa dei Santi event in Nov. 2019 tested positive for nandrolone and anabolic steroids, which are on World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list.
Despite admitting to have committed a doping violation, Kibet said the substance could have entered his body through contaminated pork meat.
Kibet also submitted a video recording of a pig farmer in the Kenyan town of Eldoret explaining how they farm and feed pigs using supplements.
The AIU argued it is the athlete’s “personal duty to ensure no prohibited substance” enters his body.
Kibet became the latest Kenyan athlete to be sanctioned in recent years, joining a list that includes 2008 Olympic 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, former Boston and Chicago Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo and 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
