The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has banned another Kenyan marathon runner for trying to evade drugs tests – taking the number of athletes from the East African country currently serving suspensions to 66.
According to a statement released by the AIU, Patrick Siele found guilty of evading an out of competition test that was to be conducted on him in Kapsabet in Kenya on December 18 last year.
Although Siele was subject to a four-year ban, AIU revealed that the athlete admitted to the violation hence a reduction of the sanction by six months.
It means there are now 66 runners from Kenya currently serving bans for doping-related offences.
AIU also noted that it Seile’s first offence.
“The AIU accepts that the Athlete promptly admitted the violation after the AIU’s notification letter on 16 March 2020 and the AIU and the World Anti-Doping Agency (‘WADA’) have agreed to a 6 month reduction in the 4-year sanction, taking into account the seriousness of his violation and his relative degree of fault (being only 23 years old, the fact that this was his first experience of out-of-competition testing and his relative lack of anti-doping education which may have contributed to his error of judgment on the day,” said the AIU statement.
