Kenyan long-distance runner Patrick Siele has been banned for three-and-a-half years for fleeing from anti-doping officials who were trying to collect a sample, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Thursday.
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Siele is the latest in a long line of Kenyan athletes to be sanctioned in recent years.
They include 2008 Olympics 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop, former Boston and Chicago Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo and 2016 Olympics marathon champion Jemimah Sumgong.
Former 1500 metres world champion Elijah Manangoi, who is also from Kenya, was provisionally suspended in July for missing three tests under the whereabouts rule.
AIU, the global disciplinary body, said in a statement that Siele ran away from anti-doping.
Personnel and an independent witness confirmed he “hurdled a fence to escape from the compound” in Kapsabet in west Kenya on Dec. 18.
His sanction has been backdated to March 16, 2020.
Siele’s ban was initially set for four years but was reduced by six months after he “promptly admitted the violation”.
“The Unit agreed to a six-month reduction in the sanction, taking into account… 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,” the AIU said.