Nairobi — Kenyan Marathoner Titus Ekiru has been slapped with a 10-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) over forgery of hospital documents, after two separate urine samples tested positive for banned substances.
Ekiru had earlier on been provisionally suspended by the AIU as it waited for him to respond to the charges, and it is during this period, that the 2019 Africa Games Half Marathon champion further cooked himself dry.
Ekiru, in collusion with a doctor at the Nandi County Hospital forged documents and the patient registry as he tried to justify injections he received, according to the AIU. After duel diligence, the forgery was unearthed, and Ekiru further charged with tampering.
According to the AIU, documents from the hospital showed discrepancies in Ekiru's explanations saying that the injections he received stemmed from prescribed medications for injury treatment.
Colluded with a senior doctor
AIU and the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) later found out that Ekiru had colluded with a senior doctor who had administered the injections of triamcinolone acetonide during undocumented hospital visits.
Documents seen by the AIU show there was a third undocumented hospital treatment on 19 November 2021, during which Ekiru received a pethidine injection and meperidine (pethidine) tablets (among other medication) for acute pain.
The senior doctor claimed Ekiru's visits were unrecorded by the hospital as "the athlete had attended early in the morning, before the registration offices had opened".
But hospital documents obtained by the AIU revealed that the outpatient number was not issued to Ekiru until 16 June 2021; the one occasion on which the hospital confirmed Ekiru's attendance as an outpatient.
Ekiru tested positive twice for the Presence of Prohibited Substances, or their metabolites or markers, in his in-competition urine samples at marathons which he won in 2021: the Generali Milano Marathon on 16 May 2021 (triamcinolone acetonide) and the Abu Dhabi Marathon on 26 November 2021 (pethidine and its marker norpethidine).
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Lost titles and prize money
Ekiru's victory in the Generali Milano Marathon would have made him the sixth-fastest marathoner of all time.
The period of ineligibility is based on the violation that carries the more severe sanction - four years for tampering, plus two years for Aggravating Circumstances, totalling six years. Another mandatory four-year sanction has been imposed for the second Tampering violation committed by Ekiru in connection with his explanation for the second Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF), which is to be served consecutively to the six-year period for the two Presence charges and the First Tampering or Attempted Tampering Charge, thereby totalling 10 years' ineligibility.
He has also lost the Milano and Abu Dhabi Marathon titles, plus all the prize money accrued in both.
