The Athletics Integrity Unit on Thursday announced that it had banned Kenyan long-distance runner Salome Jerono Biwott for eight years with effect from June 5 following her second violation of the anti-doping regulations.
Biwott was provisionally suspended by the AIU in June after she was found to have tested positive for the banned substance Norandrosterone.
In addition to the ban, all of Biwott’s results since April 7, 2019, have been disqualified and she is required to forfeit any titles, awards, medals, points and prize and appearance money she claimed.
“On 9 July 2019, the athlete was given a final opportunity to respond to the Notice of Charge and advised that, if she did not do so by 11 July 2019, she would be deemed to have waived her right to a hearing before the Disciplinary Tribunal, to have admitted the Anti-Doping Rule Violations and to have accepted the Consequences for those Anti-Doping Rule Violations specified in the Notice of Charge,” part of a statement released by the AIU read.
This is not the first time that Biwott is being sanctioned for doping.
In March 2013, Kenya’s athletics body, Athletics Kenya, announced that Biwott and Jynocel Basweti Onyancha had both been suspended for two years following positive tests for banned substances. Biwott’s suspension then took effect from January 2013 to January 2015.
AK has previously vowed to take stern action against athletes involved in doping with President Jackson Tuwei saying in June that all athletes implicated will not represent Kenya again in any competition.
