Kenyan athlete banned after sending fake person for blood sample

Kenyan athlete Michael Saruni has been banned after sending a fake person who looked like him to provide blood and urine samples on his behalf. Michael is a middle-distance runner.

Michael has received a four-year suspension from all competitions for attempting to deceive doping officials by sending a lookalike person to provide samples.

Kenyan athlete banned after sending look-alike to give blood and urine samplehttps://t.co/XBWpQmfFU2
— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) February 10, 2024

Authorities had requested Michael to give a sample at the national trials for the 2022 World Championships. According to Kenya’s anti-doping body (ADAK), Michael tried a variety of tricks to avoid giving samples.

The official investigations into his case revealed that Michael strongly dodged, refused, and failed to give a sample or submit to sample collection. Moreover, he escaped or left the venue by collaboration or deception.

Michael has accusations of walking into a bathroom with another male. After that, he swapped clothes and sent a lookalike man to give samples. However, his elaborate attempt to get out of the test did not mislead the ADAK officials. ADAK officials quickly recognized they were not dealing with Michael Saruni.

According to a witness statement by an ADAK official, he saw that the guy did not appear like an athlete who had just finished a race. Detectives eventually caught Michael in the toilet. Michael attempted to flee by hopping over a barred wall instead of surrendering.

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Michael said he was baffled by the charge against him during his trial. He claimed that he had never skipped a sample collection. The officials had not informed him that he needed to take a drug test on a particular day.

However, ADAK officials have banned Kenyan athlete Michael Surani for his fraudulent efforts. It will prevent him from competing until Aug 2027, when he will be 32 years old. He is now 28 years old.

Michael formerly held the 600m indoor world mark running the course in 1:14.79 in January 2018. He was representing the University of Texas in El Paso at that time. He also raced in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but did not get beyond the semi-finals.