Manangoi suspended in doping case

MONACO (AP):

Former 1500m world champion Elijah Manangoi was provisionally suspended yesterday for missing doping tests.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said the Kenyan runner has been charged with “whereabouts failures”. No timetable for his disciplinary case was given.

Manangoi, who won the world title in 2017, is the latest gold medallist under investigation for being unavailable to give a sample or not updating details of where they can be contacted each day by sample collection officials.

Christian Coleman, the American sprinter who won the 100m title last year, and Salwa Eid Naser, the Nigeria-born 400m gold medallist running for Bahrain, have both been provisionally suspended while under investigation by the AIU.

Athletes who are unavailable three times within 12 months face a two-year ban.

Manangoi won the 1500m title at the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017 and took silver in Beijing two years earlier. He is the reigning Commonwealth Games and African champion, and a multiple winner on the Diamond League track circuit.

Manangoi said in a statement he did miss three tests last year but it had “nothing to do with prohibited substances”.

“I’ve always competed as a clean athlete,” he said.

Kazakh hurdler Natalya Ivoninskaya and three other Kenyan runners were also sanctioned.

Ivoninskaya was banned for two years after a sample from the 2012 London Olympics tested positive for the steroid stanozolol.

Mercy Kibarus was banned for eight years after testing positive for the steroid norandrosterone, Kenneth Kipkemoi was banned for two years after testing positive for the drug terbutaline, and Patrick Siele was suspended for “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection”.