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Kenya bans 7 athletes for doping

Xinhua, November 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

World renowned Kenyan distance running star and two-time IAAF World Cross champion, Emily Chebet, has been banned for four years alongside six other athletes from the distance running powerhouse in sanctions that will amplify the push on the nation to reign in on doping.

Among those in the latest list of shame that was released on Friday night by Athletics Kenya are female sprinters, Joy Zakari and Francesca Koki, who were also handed four year bans each after being busted at the Beijing IAAF World Championships in August.

Little known road runners, Agnes Jepkosgei Cheserek, Bernard Mwendia, Judy Jesire Kimuge and Lilian Moraa will serve bans of two to four years on a watershed day for the country's athletics that has come under increasing pressure by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to act on the vice of face international suspension from competition in following Russia.

"Chebet, 29 has been sanctioned for four years effective July 17 to July 16, 2019 after being found guilty of using the prohibited substance Furosemide," AK said in a statement announcing the latest sanctions that push the figure of Kenyan runners banned for doping since 2012 to 43.

Chebet thus earns the unwanted distinction of being the first ever Kenyan champion at an international event to be banned for doping in the chequered history of the nation.

Chebet follows in the dirty footsteps of another convicted drug cheat female star, Rita Jeproo, a three-time winner of Boston and two-time champion of Chicago city marathons, who was banned in January but she launched an appeal at the Court for Arbitration of Sport.

Chebet won the bronze in 10,000m at the 2006 and 2014 Africa Athletics Championships as well as silver and bronze at the 2014 and 12 editions of the CAA Africa Cross Country Championships, giving her the unwanted distinction of being the first Kenyan medallist to be banned for substance abuse.

Zakari, 29, of Kenya Police Service, set a 51.14 national record at the July 11 National Championships in Nairobi before her results in Heat 3 of the Worlds in Beijing were annulled following her expulsion from China.

Koki, 22, was part of the country's 4X400m and 4X100m relay teams that finished fifth at both the heats of their competition in Glasgow, Scotland and her result at the heats of the 400m Hurdles were chalked off in Beijing. Endi