Titus Ekiru has been given a 10-year ban for anti-doping violations by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
In a landmark ruling by AIU, the sanctions include two years for aggravating circumstances while the bulk of the ban is for tampering, which carries an eight-year ban as it was repeated twice by the offender.
Ekiru won the half marathon gold at the 2019 All-African Games and posted wins in the Seville Marathon (2017), Mexico City Marathon (2018), and Honolulu Marathon (2018/2019).
He also the Milano Marathon in 2018 and the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in 2017 among others.
AIU discovered the presence of Prohibited Substances (Triamcinolone Acetonide and Metabolite; Pethidine and Metabolite) and his results in all competitions since 2021 have been quashed.
AIU said the first adverse analytical finding happened during the Milano Marathon in May 2021, where there were traces of Triamcinolone Acetonide.
According to the WADA 2021 Prohibited List, Triamcinolone Acetonide was (at that time) prohibited in In-Competition when administered by certain injectable routes.
Therefore, on June 14, 2021, in the context of an initial review of the first adverse analytical finding conducted pursuant to Article 5 of the International Standard for Results Management (ISRM), the AIU wrote to the Athlete requesting his preliminary explanation
The AIU proceeded to investigate the Athlete’s explanation and medical documents (the Initial Investigation) and found that the medical document evidencing a patellar injury in 2020 was consistent with publicly available information about the Athlete having such an injury.
And that the concentration of triamcinolone acetonide in the first sample was potentially consistent with the intraarticular injections that the athlete asserted he had received at the hospital on April 29, 2021, and May 6, 2021.
On August 10, 2021, the AIU requested the assistance of the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya in the context of an investigation into Ekiru's explanation and the supporting medical documents that he submitted to the AIU on June 21, 2021.
Following a review of the information obtained from the initial investigation on September 2, 2021, the AIU wrote to Ekiru stating that, based on his explanation and the information available to the AIU at that stage, the AIU had concluded that Triamcinolone Acetonide had not been administered to the athlete via one of the prohibited routes identified on the WADA 2021 Prohibited List (Initial AIU Decision).
The second adverse analytical finding was provided during in competition at the Abu Dhabi which revealed traces of Pethidine and its Metabolite Norpethidine in the second sample.
