More misery for Kenya's Olympic champ as IAAF doubles ban

Kenya's Jemima Sumgong wins the Elite Women's race of the 2016 London Marathon in central London on April 24, 2016. AFP PHOTO | JUSTIN TALLIS

What you need to know:

  • A statement from IAAF’s Athletes Integrity Unit indicated that Sumgong, who tested positive to a banned performance enhancing substance in April 2017 after an out-of-competition test, that there was compelling evidence that Sumgong lied.

The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) has extended the 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong’s doping ban to eight years after the athlete presented "fake evidence" in her appeal.

A statement from IAAF’s Athletes Integrity Unit indicated that Sumgong, who tested positive to a banned performance enhancing substance in April 2017 after an out-of-competition test, that there was compelling evidence that Sumgong lied.

The IAAF’s independent disciplinary tribunal that heard Sumgong’s appeal ruled that she "fabricated her medical records and lied about her whereabouts" after a positive test for banned blood boosting Erythropoietin (EPO) in 2017.

Sumgong, who had been banned for four years in November 2017, had that ban now been doubled after the tribunal, chaired by Michael Beloff QC, for having committed a second anti-doping offence of “tampering with a doping control."

Thanks to the change to the World Anti-Doping Agency code that has seen the Kenyan punished with another four-year ban. That means that
the disgraced Sumgong, who has since been dismissed form the Kenya Defence Force will stay out of athletics until 3 April 2025.