Kenyan long distance runner Florence Jepkosgei Chepsoi has received a one-year community service sentence for faking documents as part of her defence on a doping charge, the Anti-Doping Association of Kenya announced.
Jepkosgei Chepsoi becomes the first Kenyan athlete to be found guilty in a criminal court.
Sportstar reported that Chepsoi, who finished second at the 2019 Jakarta Marathon, was initially charged with doping by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya in 2017 after testing positive for the banned steroid prednisolone at a race in China.
The 36-year-old marathon runner was later found guilty of providing false medical records from Eldoret’s Uasin Gishu Hospital to support her defence case when she appeared before the Kenyan Sports Disputes Tribunal, Firstpost added.
ADAK found the documents were forgeries and Chepsoi had never been treated at the hospital, leading the anti-doping body to push for her to be prosecuted in a criminal court.
“The Uasin Gishu district hospital confirmed that those medical documents had been forged and that the athlete had not been treated at the said hospital,” ADAK said in a statement.