Another Kenyan runner banned for doping

Kenya’s Vincent Kipsegechi Yator, who survived a nasty accident to finish third at Honolulu Marathon last year, has been given a four-year ban after violating anti-doping rules.

World Athletics' Athletes Integrity Unit (AIU) had suspended Yator on October 2 last year after having tested positive to a banned substance.

Yator’s urine sample taken on July 7, 2019 during the Gold Coast Marathon had the presence of Prednisone, Prednisolone and metabolites of testosterone, which are banned substances.

Yator, 30, had claimed a personal best when finishing fourth in 2:09:59 at the Gold Coast Marathon, three months after a seventh place (2:10:02) finish in Vienna City Marathon.

Yator had during the Kenya Police Service Championships on July 11 last year, finished seventh in the men’s 10,000m race.

He won the National 5,000m title on his way to winning silver over the same distance at the Africa Championships in 2010 in Nairobi.

That saw him represent Africa at the Intercontinental Cup in Croatia.

The same year, Yator represented Kenya in 5,000m at the Delhi Commonwealth Games where he finished fourth.

Yator also claimed fourth place in 5,000m at the 2011 Maputo Africa Games and finished in a similar position, but in the 10,000m at the 2015 Congo Brazzaville African Games.

Yator flew the Kenyan flag as a junior, finishing sixth in 5,000m at the 2008 World Under-20 Championships.

Before claiming a third place in 2:15:31 in Honolulu on December 9, 2018, Yator had on October 28 settled 10th at the Frankfurt Marathon in 2:12:03.

He won the Kenya Police Service 10,000m titles in 2016 and 2017 and featured in the 10,000m trials for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Eldoret where he settled fifth.

On February 2018, Yator, who was preparing for Paris Half Marathon was involved in a nasty accident, while travelling back to Eldoret from Nairobi.

Yator was headed back to Eldoret after applying for his Schengen visa at the French embassy in Nairobi.

Yator was travelling with fellow road runner Francis Kiplagat, who had also been to the capital on a similar mission, though his was a visa application at the Embassy of China ahead of a marathon he’d programmed for China.

They tucked themselves in as their North Rift shuttle ran at full career through the night, past Kikopey, hurtling towards Nakuru at about 9pm on February 18 last year.

Then there was a loud bang, and then pitch darkness. Some of the passengers had died on impact, among them Kiplagat.

The injured were rushed to the St Mary’s hospital along the highway, with Yator later transferred to Nakuru, and then Eldoret.

Yator suffered three broken ribs and internal bleeding that saw him admitted at Eldoret’s Reale Hospital for about a week. Yator overcame the tragedy to finish third in Honolulu Marathon.