Ikaika call out AIU in Kipruto's suspension

Ikaika Sport have jumped to Rhonex Kipruto defense following his provisional suspension by Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) over Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) irregularities. 

In a comprehensive statement, his agent at Ikaika Davor Savija terms the ‘guilty until proven innocent’ treatment of athletes an injustice as experts are quoted to have opined that there is insufficient evidence to find this athlete guilty.

In a quote released alongside the statement detailing the tests Kipruto has been subjected to in the lead up to the suspension, the athlete says “I don't cheat or dope! The truth is on my side. This is all I can say.”

10km world record holder Rhonex Kipruto provisionally suspended for doping

His management has explained their reasons for disagreeing with AIU.

The statement states that AIU panel of experts evaluated the ABP records for the period July 2018 - March 2022. All out-of-competition (OOC) and in-competition (IC) tests, more than 50, were negative.

All (but one OOC test) were unannounced. Kipruto was tested in-and-out of his specified 1-hour testing slots – morning, mid-day and evening. In total, there were 32 ABP blood tests (2 IC and 30 OOC) from those 32, on 20 occasions urine samples were collected as well. Additional 17 IC urine tests were done, plus 3 more urine-only OOC tests.

Additionally, his management claim that Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA), EPO, ferritin, among other substances, were frequently tested for and there were no positive results for any of the banned substances. Further four tests were eliminated from the ABP due to technical deficiencies in taking or storing the samples.

While maintaining that his whereabouts has been regular and predictable as he is either at his Iten-based St. Patrick’s camp, his private home, 5-10 minutes’ drive from the camp or his rural home reachable within 90 minutes from the camp, Ikaika have clarified that the athlete has only missed one missed test in three and a half years.

“Kipruto is provisionally suspended and was requested to provide an explanation, which of course the athlete and independent experts have already submitted.

Despite the fact that we must accept the “presumption of guilt”, per anti-doping rules in place, we struggle to accept seeing athletes treated like criminals.

We are presenting the most important questions and answers about Rhonex, his background and why we believe him when he says that he is a clean athlete,” the statement reads in part.

“We are fighting against doping, we have zero tolerance for cheating, and we support development of the Athlete Biological Passport. However, imagine a scenario where a policeman stops you and tries to imprison you without any direct or even indirect proof, saying you have committed some undefined terrible crime, which now you need to prove to have not committed, while addressing various indirect hypotheses of what might have happened with your body months and years ago.

This is a presumption of guilt! Kafkaesque drama, one could say. Unfortunately, the “guilty until proven innocent” principle rules the life of an athlete in these cases. (While we believe the standard of comfortable satisfaction shall prevail and the accused person shall remain innocent until proven guilty.)

The case has been under scrutiny for some time now, intensely engaging the agent, coach and assistant coach, staff and, of course, independent experts as well as the athlete himself.

It is affecting Rhonex’s mental and physical performance. We have already spent more than USD 30,000, which is a huge amount of money in the distance running world. This is trial before trial, and this is somewhat schizophrenic – we are asked to explain ourselves, but are not provided with sufficient information.

Without engaging experts, legal team and incurring significant expenses, one can’t provide sufficiently detailed and reasoned explanations and replies rooted in science, data analytics, etc.

The absurd thing is we are not in a position of a level playing field. This is injustice. We will, of course, fully cooperate and be totally transparent. We urge the AIU to do the same.” Savija’s take on the development continued.