Kenyan marathon runner Philemon Kacheran Lokedi has been banned for three years 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Kacheran was withdrawn from the Kenyan team before the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and becomes the ninth Kenyan to be banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) since the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. Meanwhile Kenyans Philimon Kipchumba and Agnes Keino were on Sunday crowned champions in men’s and women’s category during the 36th edition of Generali Munich marathon in Germany.Kipchumba crossed the finish line in Munich’s Olympic Stadium in 2:07:28. Behind the 23 year-old Mengistu Zelalem of Ethiopia and Eritrea’s Berhane Tesfaye followed in 2:07:56 and 2:08:10 respectively – times that were well faster than the previous course record of 2:09:46.In ideal weather conditions with temperatures of 9 Celsius at the start, hardly any wind and a cloudy sky a leading group of ten runners reached the half marathon mark in 63:41. However, Tsegaye Mekonnen was no longer among them. The Ethiopian, who still holds the unofficial world junior record of 2:04:32 and was the fastest runner on the start list, had lost contact shortly before and later dropped out. But a compact group remained together in the lead until the late stages of the race. Five of them passed the 35k mark in 1:45:33. Once pacemaker Boniface Kiplimo of Kenya dropped out shortly afterwards a duel between Philimon Kipchumba and Mengistu Zelalem developed. Kipchumba was then able to put in a surge just before the 41st kilometre and dropped Zelalem.

“I did not quite expect to run such a fast debut. But my training went very well and I just tried my best,“ said Kipchumba.who hopes to achieve times of 2:04 in the future.In the women’s race Agnes Keino and Mare Dibaba were together in the lead, passing the half marathon point in 71:46 and then 30k in 1:42:01. With around eight kilometers to go Keino, who entered the race with a PB of 2:25:08, went ahead. Former world champion Dibaba, who was the fastest on the start list with her PB of 2:19:52, suffered  muscle problems and was not able to respond to the surge of her Kenyan rival. However Mare Dibaba finished second with 2:24:12, running her fastest time since 2019. “It was my big goal to run a personal best and I am really happy that I achieved it.