Kenyan athlete Kabuu provisionally suspended

Nairobi, Aug 4: Another high profile athlete from Kenya, Lucy Wangui Kabuu has been suspended after testing positive for banned narcotics, the Athlete Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Saturday.

According to the AIU, which is an IAAF unit charged to monitor doping among the athletes, former Commonwealth Games champion Kabuu, 34, who has run under the two hours and 20 minutes in marathon, is provisionally suspended after testing positive for banned narcotic morphine, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Kenyan veteran athlete represented Kenya twice at the Olympic Games, finishing in the top ten of the 10,000m race in both 2004 and 2008. She has a personal best time of 2:19:34 from Dubai marathon in 2012.

"A provisional suspension is when an athlete or other person is suspended temporarily from participating in any competition or activity in athletics prior to a final decision at a hearing conducted under the IAAF Anti-Doping Rules or the Integrity Code of Conduct," said the AIU statement on Saturday.

This came just days after AIU suspended another Kenyan sprinter Boniface Mweresa for failing a doping test in June and was hence dropped from Kenya's team to the Africa Championships, which are currently going on in Asaba, Nigeria.

Multiple world 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop is also suspended after his sample B tested positive to EPO and he is waiting for the final verdict from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

According to the AIU, Kabuu's suspension takes effect on August 1 after her blood samples showed presence of morphine, a prohibited substance under Article 2.1 of the anti-doping rules.

Kabuu, the 2006 Commonwealth Games champion, returned to action this year after a prolonged season out and won the Milano Marathon in April.

Alongside Kabuu and Kiprop, other athletes suspended by AIU pending the conclusion of their cases include Hilary Kepkosgei Yego and Bahraini Ruth Jebet, who train and lives in Kenya.