Kenyan marathoner Lawrence Cherono joins list of shame after seven-year doping ban

Kenyan marathoner Lawrence Cherono joins list of shame after seven-year doping ban

Joel Omotto 19:51 - 10.07.2024

Former Boston and Chicago Marathon champion Lawrence Cherono is the latest high profile athlete to get a doping ban.

Former Chicago and Boston Marathon champion Lawrence Cherono is the latest Kenyan athlete to make it to the list of shame after being handed a seven-year doping ban.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) imposed a four-year ban on the athlete and another four years for tampering or attempted tampering of the doping control, with the overall punishment reduced by one year after his admission and acceptance.

Cherono had been provisionally suspended in July 2022 after testing positive for banned substance trimetazidine in an out-of-competition test and lacked an exemption to use it.

The 35-year-old said he had been experiencing stomach problems and claimed a doctor had injected him with an unknown substance only to give a different explanation later, when he blamed the issue on a mix-up with his wife’s medication.

Cherono’s seven-year ban starts on July 16, 2022, the date of his provisional suspension, meaning he will be out until 2029, by which time he will be 40 years old.

The marathoner won the Boston and Chicago Marathons in 2019 before second place in Valencia the following year.

He was part of Team Kenya to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when he finished fourth and claimed victory in Valencia in 2022, his last race before his suspension.

Cherono is one of the most high-profile Kenyan runners to fall foul of the doping rules as he also won Seville, Prague and Amsterdam Marathons.

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