TWO-time London Marathon winner Wilson Kipsang has been charged for ‘whereabouts failures’ and ‘tampering’ by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

The 37-year-old Kenyan is now banned from competing until his hearing has taken place.

Kipsang – the London 2012 marathon bronze medallist – has also won the Berlin, New York and Tokyo marathons.

His management stressed he has not failed a drugs test and added: “No prohibited substance was found.”

Volare Sports added: “The accusation regarding alleged/attempted tampering concerns an explanation that was given in the results management process regarding a possible Whereabouts Failure and does not concern tampering with a doping test itself.”

Kipsang is the sixth fastest marathon runner in history, with a personal best of two hours three minutes 13 seconds.

The AIU – founded by World Athletics to combat doping in 2017 – confirmed Kipsang’s suspension for “whereabouts failures” and “tampering or attempted tampering”.

Under anti-doping regulations, athletes have to inform testing authorities of their whereabouts for a one-hour window of every day.

Three failures in 12 months – not being present at the said time, or filing inaccurate or incomplete information, count as one failure – leads to an automatic ban.

On its website, the AIU says it “will be taking a more stringent approach to whereabouts requirements in 2020”. (BBC Sport)