Running News Daily

Rodgers Kwemoi's titles from 2016 stripped as he receives six-year doping ban

Rodgers Kwemoi has been slapped with a six-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit with all his titles from 2016 stripped.

Rodgers Kwemoi has been slapped with a six-year ban for the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP) with his results from July 18, 2016 disqualified.

Kwemoi was an upcoming road runner and had represented Kenya in several events including the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

The 26-year-old will now be stripped off his Istanbul Half Marathon title, his 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medal and his junior world title from 2016 in the 10,000m.

Meanwhile, the AIU reported that in May last year, they wrote to Kwemoi, notifying him of the abnormalities detected in his ABP profile and that they were considering taking charges against him. He was, therefore, invited to explain himself and the abnormalities but he did not respond within the given timeline.

Kwemoi then responded later, claiming that the reason for the issue was a result of the natural variations due to the psychological responses influenced by the frequent changes in climate, altitude, and other environmental factors. However, his explanation was rejected by the panel.

However, Kwemoi still insisted that the explanation the AIU gave was not sufficient to conclude that he committed an anti-doping rule violation.

The Japan-based runner’s samples, according to the AIU, posted inconsistencies was before the World Under-20 Championships in 2016 and the AIU made the ruling for the ban to start from then and his results since then be disqualified.