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    Kenya: Fall From Grace – Marathon Giant Lawrence Cherono Banned for Seven Years

    Nairobi — The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has slapped the 2019 Chicago Marathon champion Lawrence Cherono with a seven-year ban for three anti-doping violations.

    In a statement, the agency said the runner was guilty of an additional charge of tampering to mislead investigations into his positive test for the banned substance, trimetazidine.

    “Cherono also violated ADR 2.5 – Tampering or Attempted Tampering with any part of Doping Control by an Athlete or other Person” – after making false statements and then producing fraudulent medical documents to explain his positive test,” the statement read.

    According to AIU’s account, the two-time Amsterdam Marathon champion presented falsified medical documents alleging to be his wife’s prescription for trimetazidine, which he unknowingly took to cure his muscle pains.

    “However, in a subsequent written statement, Cherono said he had been inadvertently given Trimetazidine in the form of Carvidon tablets by his wife – instead of the painkillers he had requested – to treat muscle pain following training on 22 May 2022,” AIU said.

    They added: “According to the runner, his wife had been prescribed the Trimetazidine four days earlier at a medical centre. To support his explanation, Cherono provided a Laboratory Request from the medical centre, including handwritten details of medications prescribed for his wife, along with a photograph of the underside of tablets enclosed in their blister packaging.”

    AIU’s statement further indicates that investigations into Cherono’s wife’s medical records at the medical centre – via a court order – revealed that she had never sought treatment at the facility.