Kenya's world 10km record holder and 2019 world 10,000m bronze medallist Rhonex Kipruto has been provisionally suspended by the AIU ©Getty Images

Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto, the 10 kilometres road race world record holder, has been provisionally suspended for an anti-doping violation, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has announced.

The AIU said on Twitter that Kipruto, 23, had been suspended "for the use of a prohibited substance/method (ABP)".

ABP refers to the Athlete Biological Passport, which shows long-term discrepancies that can reveal the effects of doping.

The AIU added that a notice of the charge has been issued to him.

Kipruto broke the 10km record in Valencia on January 12, 2020, running 26mins 24secs to eclipse the previous mark of 26:38 set by Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei at the same venue on December 1 2019.

At the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Kipruto won 10,000 metres bronze in a final won by Cheptegei.

Speaking in Monaco in 2018 during the Athlete of the Year Awards, Kipruto told me: "I want to make the team for the World Championships next year, and then to break the world record for 10km on the roads."

Kenya's world 10km record holder and Doha 2019 10,000m bronze medallist Rhonex Kipruto has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit ©Getty Images
Kenya's world 10km record holder and Doha 2019 10,000m bronze medallist Rhonex Kipruto has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit ©Getty Images

Earlier in 2018 he had won 10,000m gold at the World Under-20 Championships in Tampere.

Kipruto returned to Valencia in December 2020 to clock a half marathon time of 57min 49sec.

The AIU has also issued a notice of provisional suspension for another Kenyan distance runner, Nicholas Mboroto Kosimbei, for the presence/use of a prohibited substance trimetazidine.

Kosimbei, 26, won 10,000m bronze at the 2014 World Under-20 Championships held in Eugene, Oregon.

In 2017 he won the Valencia 10km in 27:52, and on April 22 last year he won the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in Washington, DC in 45min 15sec.

He also finished 15th in the World Cross Country Championships senior race held in Kampala in 2017.

In 2016 he set a 10,000m personal best of 27min 02.59sec in Eugene.

Research by insidethegames in January found that of the 473 athletes or athlete support personnel listed on the AIU’s Global List of Ineligible Persons, uploaded on December 31, that Kenya had recorded 54 doping cases, with only Russia, with 92, and India, with 65, reporting more.

According to the AIU's provisional suspensions list, besides Kipruto and Kosimbei, five Kenyan athletes have been issued with provisional suspensions for the presence of prohibited substances within the past year.