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Former 1500m Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop quits athletics for motor sport

Photo credit: Andy Lyons - Getty Images
Photo credit: Andy Lyons - Getty Images

From Runner's World

Kenyan runner Asbel Kiprop, who won gold in the 1500m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but is currently serving a four-year doping ban, has announced he is leaving athletics to become a rally driver.

Kiprop, 30, who is also a three-time world champion, said on this Twitter account, “I am ready to begin again in a sport that doesn’t have doping conspiracy. I will be patient again to be able to be champion. I will be climbing this ladder hoping to learn the next game." The surprising career move comes less than a month after he announced, also on Twitter, he was returning to athletics training.

In November 2017, Kiprop tested positive for the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) and was given a four-year ban in 2019. He has always maintained his innocence, saying his sample had been tampered with.

Kiprop has now joined a rally-driving academy in Nairobi to improve his skills. In 2013 he was briefly hospitalised after he lost control of his car on a sharp turn in Iten. It was reported that only a rock wedged under the car prevented it from going off a cliff.

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