Nairobi — In under two weeks, another Kenyan athlete has been slapped with a ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), with two-time Rotterdam Marathon winner Marius Kipserem slapped with a three-year ban for EPO.

This brings to three, the number of Kenyan athletes who have been banned since last week due to doping related charges, while three more have been handed suspensions as investigations are concluded.

Since September, five Kenyans have been banned for doping offences.

Kipserem would have been banned for four years, but as has become the latest tradition, admitted to the doping charge hence has a year slashed from his initial ban.

According to the AIU, the 34-year old's sample reported an Adverse Analytical Finding in the Sample based on the presence of recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) on September 20. He was notified of the positive test two days later.

On 28 September, the Athlete returned a dated but unsigned Admission of Anti-Doping Rule Violations and Acceptance of Consequences Form dated.

He was later interviewed, on October 4, but maintained his denials of doping and that he had no explanation for how the EPO had been detected in the Sample.

On October 11, the athlete wrote to the AIU stating that, due to technical difficulty, he was unable to return the Admission of Anti-Doping Rule Violations and Acceptance of Consequences Form properly signed. The Athlete expressly confirmed in writing that he admitted the Anti-Doping Rule Violations and accepted the consequences.

He will now have all his results since 17 August 2022 disqualified, with all resulting consequences, including the forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, points prizes and appearance money.

Kipserem won the Rotterdam Marathon in 2016 and 2019, setting a Course Record in the latter, as well as the 2018 Abu Dhabi Marathon.