Philemon Kacheran Lokedi becomes latest Kenyan be banned for a doping offence

Philemon Kacheran Lokedi is the ninth Kenyan athlete to be banned for a doping offence this year

Kenyan marathon runner Philemon Kacheran Lokedi has been handed a three-year ban after being found to have used a prohibited substance.

The 30-year-old returned a positive result for "testosterone of exogenous origin" in an out-of-competition test in April.

Kacheran was withdrawn from the Kenyan team before the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and becomes the ninth Kenyan to be banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) since the beginning of July.

His period of ineligibility is backdated to 8 July, the date of his provisional suspension.

Kacheran had faced a four-year ban but was granted a one-year reduction because of "an early admission [of guilt] and acceptance of sanction", said the AIU.

Kacheran finished eighth in the Rotterdam Marathon in April, but ran his best time of two hours five minutes 19 seconds when finishing third in the Valencia Marathon in December last year.

Lawrence Cherono, who won both the Boston and Chicago marathons in 2019, is the most prominent of the nine Kenyans banned this year.

He had to withdraw from the team for this year's World Championships, while already at their venue in Oregon, United States.

Last month, Lilian Kasait Rengeruk, who finished 12th in the 5,000 metres final at last year's Olympic Games in Tokyo, was banned for 10 months for the use of the hormone therapy drug Letrozole.

Kenya was placed in the top category of the World Anti-Doping Agency's compliance watch list in 2016.