Former half-marathon world record-holder Kibiwott Kandie has been banned for seven years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after admitting to refusing to submit to sample collection and tampering with the doping control process.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the AIU said the 30-year-old Kenyan had breached Rule 2.3 ADR on evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection and Rule 2.5 ADR on tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control.
Kandie was initially facing an eight-year sanction, four years for breaching Rule 2.3 and another four years for tampering, but received a one-year reduction for early admission and acceptance of the sanction. His ban runs from March 14, 2025, to March 13, 2032, while his results from March 1, 2025, have been disqualified.
The AIU said Kandie, a three-time Valencia Half Marathon champion in 2020, 2022 and 2023, was tested at his residential address in Kenya on March 1, 2025, when a Doping Control Officer and a chaperone arrived to conduct an out-of-competition test.
Although he signed the electronic doping control form to acknowledge he was required to provide samples, the AIU said he delayed the sample collection process, made numerous phone calls and ultimately refused to cooperate, telling the Doping Control Officer he had “an important payment to make” to National Construction Authority officers who were about to close down his construction site two hours away in Eldoret.
According to the AIU, Kandie was warned that any refusal to be tested would carry the same consequences as a positive test, which he said he understood. The statement added that he then left the house to make further calls before eventually leaving the property by car.
The AIU said Kandie’s “initial explanations for his refusal to provide a sample were exposed as being false” after the unit carried out a forensic analysis of his phone and financial records. It added that analysis of his phone showed he made multiple calls during the test attempt to a number linked to a registered nurse in Eldoret, while financial records revealed 11 transfers to the nurse in the 12 months before the attempted test.
Following his provisional suspension on March 14, 2025, Kandie applied to have the suspension lifted and submitted a Certificate of Application for an Environmental Impact Assessment from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), which he said showed he was urgently required in Eldoret on March 1, 2025, to assist with an inspection of a construction site.
However, the AIU said further investigations, with assistance from the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya, established that the document was fake. NEMA confirmed that the application reference number on the certificate did not exist, Kandie’s name was not in its records, there was no record of an inspection at the Eldoret site on March 1, 2025, and the certificate was “not genuine and deemed to be invalid”.
“This case serves as a reminder that no athlete is above the rules in the sport of athletics,” said AIU head Brett Clothier. “If an athlete refuses a test, it places the integrity of the sport at risk.”
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