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NAIROBI, Nov. 8-- Banned Kenyan female marathon Olympic champion Jemimah Jelagat Sumgong attempted to seek a reduced two-year ban by admitting to using prohibited substance, recombinant Erythropoietin (rEPO). Kenya's Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) that heard her petition to reduce her international suspension from the sport however, rejected her defence allowing the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) to slap her with a four-year ban on Tuesday. Sumgong was provisionally suspended from the sport on April 3 after her urine A-Sample collected at an out-of-competition test conducted on Feb. 28 tested positive for the banned blood booster. According to the 23-page ruling, the convicted 2016 London Marathon winner claimed she was administered the drug after consulting an unnamed doctor on Feb. 22, 2016, barely six days to the test conducted by IAAF Anti-Doping Officers, at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in Nairobi. "The Athlete responded to the Notice from the IAAF stating that she had consulted an unnamed doctor at KNH on Feb. 23 last year for severe bleeding resulting from previous night travel and that she was given a blood transfusion in addition to other unknown medication," the Tribunal ruling stated. The management of KNH that is the biggest public referral hospital in Kenya however, wrote to the SDT on Jun. 9, 2017 spelling out Sumgong was never treated with rEPO. "The purported use of Erythropoietin injection is not a standard practice in the management of ectopic pregnancies at the facility and there are no records of the Athlete receiving such injection at the hospital for whatever ailment," the hospital submitted. | 
