Kenyan middle distance runner Alfred Kipketer has been sanctioned with a two year ban and South African long jumper Luvo Manyonga has been provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics has announced. Kipketer has been sanctioned with a two year ban from 26 November 2019, after missing four tests in a 12 month period. 

The 800m specialist only provided an explanation for one of the Missed Tests. On 27 November 2018, a Doping Control Officer (DCO) was told that Kipketer had travelled to Nairobi three days prior; On 16 March 2019, a DCO was told that Kipketer had travelled to Nairobi for trials and had forgotten to update his whereabouts information; on 11 September 2019, a DCO failed to locate Kipketer at his specified location at Gata Rongai in Kenya’s Rift Valley. 

On 5 August 2019, the DCO failed to locate Kipketer, and was later told that he had to travel to Nairobi due to his son being unwell. His explanation included a bus receipt and itinerary detailing travel from Eldoret to Nairobi, as well as a medical certificate. However, the AIU ruled that he had ample time in which to update his whereabouts (see right).

Luvo Manyonga has also been provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures, the AIU announced. Manyonga was considered one of the favourites to medal at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, after he won the London 2017 World Athletics Championships and the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games titles. 

In 2012, he was sanctioned with an 18 month ban for an anti-doping rule violation involving methamphetamine, which he admitted was due to using Tik, a local version of the drug popular socially in his home township of Mbekweni (Paarl). Following rehabilitation, he returned to training in 2015 and to competition a year later, where he won Silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics.