Kenyan athlete banned for doping
The World Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Disciplinary Tribunal has banned Kenyan long-distance runner Vincent Kipsegechi Yator for four-years.
AIU had provisionally suspended Yator on October 2 last year for testing positive to a banned substance.
His urine sample was taken in July during the Gold Coast Marathon and it was discovered it had Prednisone, Prednisolone, and metabolites of testosterone, which are banned substances.
On February 2018, Yator, who was preparing for the Paris Half Marathon was involved in a bad accident while travelling back to Eldoret from Nairobi.
Fellow runner Francis Kiplagat, who was in the vehicle lost his life in the accident while Yator, who suffered broken ribs and was admitted at Eldoret’s Reale Hospital for about a week, recovered and went back to action, finishing third in Honolulu Marathon last year.
Yator, 30, finished sixth in the 5000 meters run at 2008 World Junior Athletics Championships in Bydgoszcz.
He won a silver medal over the same distance at the 2010 African Athletics Championships in Nairobi and finished fourth a few weeks later at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi over the same distance.
The ban is, however, appealable and the athlete and his representatives are yet to reveal on whether they will explore the option.