Sample collector tipped off Kenyan star about doping test

FILE – In this file photo dated Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015, Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop celebrates winning the gold medal in the men’s 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. The agent for Kenya middle-distance running star Asbel Kiprop, Federico Rosa said Thursday May 3, 2018, he is shocked by a newspaper report that the former 1,500 metre Olympic champion failed a drug test. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, FILE)

MONACO — Track and field’s anti-doping unit has confirmed that one of its sample collectors tipped off Asbel Kiprop about the supposedly surprise out-of-competition test which subsequently caught the 2008 Olympic 1500-meter champion with the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO in his system.

The Athletics Integrity Unit said Friday that the doping control officer’s actions were “extremely disappointing.”

READ: Olympic 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop ‘tested positive’ for EPO

Its statement did not address Kiprop’s allegations that the officer also asked for — and got — money from him during the test in Kenya in November. It said the IAAF’s disciplinary tribunal will determine whether the sample collector’s tip-off violated anti-doping rules and rendered the test invalid.

The AIU said three-time world champion Kiprop tested positive for EPO. Kiprop insists he was not guilty of doping.