Asbel Kiprop: Police seek to disarm disgraced Olympic champion

The world of former Olympic 1,500 metres champion Asbel Kiprop seems to be getting murkier with his employers, the National Police Service, now tracking down the disgraced athlete after he took to social media threatening to use his firearm to “seek justice.”

A senior police official in Eldoret said they are tracking down the athlete, who has been suspended for using banned performance-enhancing substances, after he took to social media to vent his frustrations.

In a sensational tweet Kiprop, 29, dared his National Police Service employers to sack him and withdraw his firearm before he uses it to “earn justice.”

The constable also dared the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the world athletics governing body, to take all the medals he won in global competitions where he specialises in the 1,500 metres race.

“I pray to National Police Service to dismiss me now. Before I use their machinery to earn myself justice. Kindly. IAAF come take your medals. I don’t need any on my house wall,” he tweeted at 3.23pm on Saturday.

At 10.58pm on Friday, the seemingly disturbed athlete had sent another tweet saying: “They can’t stand me now & for me to earn justice but if I die today, they will attend my send off to testify my legacy & preach my legacy!! Don’t welcome them.”

The Deputy Inspector General of the National Police Service in charge of logistics and functions Joseph Kiget, who is also the chairman of the police athletics association, told Nation Sport necessary administrative action would be taken against Kiprop.

“We don’t condone such behaviour from our officers. Channels of addressing personal grievances are provided in the NPS rules and regulations and firm administrative action will be taken appropriately in this case,” said Kiget.

Meanwhile, Eldoret South OCPD Wilson Abduba also confirmed they were following up the issue.

“We are equally shocked with the posts, but at this time we cannot say much,” said Abduba.

Abduba said that his officers are trying to trace Kiprop's location. the 29-year-old resides in Elgon View estate in Eldoret town.

“At this time we cannot speculate about the post, we are yet to establish if Kiprop is the original author of the message,” said the OCPD.

Kiprop, the 2008 Beijing Olympics 1,500m champion, was tentatively suspended by IAAF’s Athletes Integrity Unit (AIU) in May last year after having tested positive to blood boosting Erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition test in Iten in November 2017.

In his defence, Kiprop continues to maintain his position that the alleged EPO doping in the sample of 27th November 2017 is either (a) natural (endogenous) EPO (not artificial) or (b) the sample used to effect the test was not his sample, or otherwise was contaminated, or mixed up with other sample(s) or (c) the procedure used to test the alleged artificial EPO was flawed with the result of mistaking natural EPO as artificial EPO.

Kiprop’s ban has been back-dated from February 3, 2018, but the athlete has another opportunity to appeal at the Courts of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

One of his closest friend and former world javelin champion Julius Yego, also a policeman, said that it was “disturbing” to see his friend post dangerous messages.

“I talked to Kiprop in the morning but he was stressed up and had a lot of pain insisting he is going through rough times on something he didn’t do. My worry is that he can do something harmful,” said Yego.

Efforts by Nation Sport to reach Kiprop proved futile after our calls went unanswered and he failed to respond to our texts.

Additional reporting by Titus Ominde