Seven athletes from Kenya have been banned by governing body Athletics Kenya (AK) after all failed drug tests.
Double world cross country champion and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Emily Chebet is one of the culprits and will not feature in the sport for four years.
These new suspensions now raise the number of banned Kenyan runners to 43 off Koki Manunga and Joyce Zakary’s that made them IAAF World Athletics Championships’ first athletes to fail drugs tests.
According to Athletics Kenya, Chebet, also gold medallist at the 2010 and 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships, tested positive for diuretic and masking agent furosemide.
Rita Jeptoo, winner of Boston and Chicago Marathons was suspended in late January for two years after testing positive with a banned substance also used by Lance Amstrong in her ‘A’ sample.
Kenyan athletes had taken to the streets demanding transparency in the Athletics governing body, Athletics Kenya (AK) after the country was implicated for doping, bribery and corruption.
Professional Athletes Association of Kenya (PAAK), whose President is the two-time London Marathon winner Wilson Kipsang, had also accused the Government of not taking the issue of doping seriously.
29-year-old, Chebet made her international debut 12 years ago in the junior race of the World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne, finishing fifth and will now endure an unexpected break from the sport as further investigations are made.
Her best performance on the track came at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where she claimed bronze in 32min 10.82 seconds.
