NAIROBI: Kenya’s former world 10km record-holder Kibiwott Kandie has been suspended by the World Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for failing to submit to drug testing, the body said on Friday.

The 28-year-old, who is also the Commonwealth 10,000m bronze medallist, took almost half a minute off the world half-marathon record with 57:32 in Valencia at the end of the 2020 season.

Kandie is charged with “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection” by the AIU officials, which could lead to a four-year ban from the sport.

Compatriot Michael Saruni, a former African indoor 800m record holder, received a four-year ban from the anti-doping body in February 2024 for allegedly sending someone to impersonate him during a drugs test.

Another former world 10km record-holder, Rho­nex Kipruto, was banned until May 2029 after the AIU’s disciplinary tribunal ruled there were “irre­gularities in his Athlete Biological Pass­port resul­ted from doping”.

Kandie finished as runner-up to Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo at the 2020 world half marathon championships in Gdynia, Poland, but has also won road and half marathon races in Brazil, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2025