The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), through the Disciplinary Tribunal, has suspended Kenyan athlete Rhonex Kipruto for six years after confirming doping irregularities in his ABP. 

The Kenyan, who finished ninth at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, will therefore not be able to compete until 10 May 2029 due to these irregularities, which the AIU attributes to "a deliberate and sophisticated doping regime".

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is the independent body established by World Athletics to manage all doping and non-doping integrity issues in athletics.

The tribunal considered expert submissions and, after review, rejected Kipruto's defence, concluding that "the cause of the abnormalities in the ABP is most likely due to blood manipulation" through the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rEPO) and noting that "there is no other plausible explanation" for the abnormal values found in the 24-year-old Kenyan's ABP.

Kipruto was provisionally suspended on 11 May last year under World Athletics' anti-doping rules (ADR) - ADR 2.2, which relates to the "use or attempted use by an athlete of a prohibited substance or prohibited method" - after irregularities were found in his ABP dating back to July 2018.

In addition to the six-year ban, some of his most prominent honours will be stripped from him. He will no longer be the fastest man in history to run 10 kilometres on the road, a title that will be inherited by Berihu Aregawi. Aregawi's 26:33, clocked in Laredo (Cantabria, Spain) last year, was beat Kipruto's 26:24 at the Valencia Ibercaja 10K in 2020. The 10,000m bronze medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha and the 10,000m victory at the 2019 Stockholm Diamond League will also be annulled as ancillary penalties to the six-year ban.

In the case, a total of 32 blood samples collected between 9 July 2018 and 15 March 2022 were collected and analysed to create his biological passport. Three experts then analysed the passport, while also reviewing the athlete's whereabouts and competition schedule, and unanimously concluded that doping was "highly likely" based on a series of "abnormal haematological patterns".

Kipruto denied the charge of anti-doping rule violation (ADRV), arguing that the anomalies in his ABPs were due to multiple factors including natural and specific characteristics of his body, various medical conditions and health issues.

"Having carefully reviewed and considered the totality of the athlete's evidence, the panel is reasonably satisfied that (the AIU) has met its burden of proof and established that the athlete committed an ADRV," the Disciplinary Tribunal panel concluded.

In reaching its decision, the Disciplinary Tribunal noted that "the panel of experts thoroughly analysed all of the arguments put forward by the Athlete, and in each case clearly demonstrated, with supporting scientific evidence, why the Athlete's arguments could not explain the anomalies in the passport".

The panel found that the Kenyan had deliberately used doping over a long period of time to artificially enhance his performance. There are significant anomalies in relation to major competitions such as the Valencia Half Marathon in 2020 and the Kenyan Olympic Trials in 2021.

Another conclusion reached by the Tribunal is that blood doping, even outside of competition, can be used to gain an advantage by allowing more intense training, resulting in better performance, even after a significant period of time.

Therefore, doping out of competition, as has happened in recent years, is not allowed.

"The ABP is an important tool in the fight against doping in elite sport and this decision supports important principles in relation to ABP cases," said AIU chief executive Brett Clothier. "It can be difficult to directly detect the substances or methods used by sophisticated dopers, but the ABP gives us the ability to observe the telltale signs of blood doping over time. For this reason, the AIU conducted more than 4,700 ABP tests on elite athletes in 2023 and will continue to invest significantly in our ABP programme in the future.

Introduced in 2009 to combat blood doping, the ABP is an electronic record that collects an athlete's biological data over time to indirectly detect the effects of doping. The ABP collects data such as an athlete's haemoglobin concentration and percentage of immature red blood cells (reticulocytes) and uses a statistical model to identify unusual variations. The anonymised data is analysed by independent experts and for a case to proceed, three of them must unanimously conclude that doping is likely, as happened in the Kenyan's case.

This decision can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which means that if an appeal is lodged, the penalty can be changed, but the effects (suspension) remain in place during the appeal process.