NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 10 – Barely a week after former world record holder Wilson Kipsang was slapped with a four-year ban for Whereabouts Failure, an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), another Kenyan, Alex Korio has also suffered the same fate, though served with a two-year ban.
Korio missed three tests within a 12-month period between January and July 2019.
However, he has been issued with a lesser ban after he admitted liability for the three missed tests and also this being his first Anti-Doping Rule Violation.
The athlete was notified by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of all his three whereabouts failures for January 20, April 11 and July 19, but despite being given a chance to explain or ask for Administrative Review, he failed to respond and all were recorded as missed tests.
After the third missed test, he was issued with a notice of charge on March 17 this year.
According to the Athletics Integrity Unit, Korio’s authorized representative responded on his behalf on April 9 that the Athlete did not request a hearing and that he admitted the Anti-Doping Rule Violation.
On June 10, Korio accepted the proposed consequences by signing and returning an Admission of Anti-Doping Rule Violation and Acceptance of Consequences Form.
His two-year ban will now commence on the date of the third Whereabouts Failure, from 19 July 2019 to 18 July 2021.
At the same time, all competitive results obtained by the athlete between 19 July 2019 and 17 March 2020 will be disqualified with all resulting consequences, including the forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, points prizes and appearance money.
Korio is the 2017 Bengaluru 10km run champion and also represented Kenya at the 2019 World Athletics Championship where he finished 11th in the 10,000m. He had earlier finished fourth at the national championships.
