Wilson Kipsang, former marathon world record holder, banned for four years

Former marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang has been banned for four years for anti-doping whereabouts failures and using a fake photo of a traffic accident to justify one of them.

The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist and two-time London Marathon winner, who set a new fastest time for the distance in Berlin in 2013, became the latest Kenyan caught breaking anti-doping rules and falsifying evidence to cover up the offence.

Kipsang, 38, had been investigated over three missed tests and one filing failure between April 27, 2018 and May 17, 2019, the latter of which he claimed had been the result of a road traffic accident involving an overturned lorry.

But a photograph he provided as evidence was found to have been from an accident that took place more than three months later.

In announcing what could be a career-ending ban, the Athletics Integrity Unit said: “The World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal has banned long-distance runner Wilson Kipsang of Kenya for four years with effect from Jan 10, 2020 for whereabouts failures and tampering by providing false evidence and witness testimony.

“The AIU considers that the evidence demonstrates overwhelmingly that the athlete was engaged in tampering or attempted tampering in breach of the IAAF rules.

“The athlete engaged in fraudulent and deceitful conduct by providing deliberately misleading and false information to the AIU in an attempt to obstruct and delay the investigation into his explanation and/or prevent normal procedures from occurring, namely the recording of a missed test against him.”

Kipsang had been provisionally suspended in January for four whereabouts failures – three of which inside 12 months lead to an automatic ban – and tampering by providing false evidence.

His personal best for the marathon, set in Berlin in 2016, is two hours, three minutes and 13 seconds, placing him equal sixth on the all-time list.