A top Kenyan athlete ran away from anti-doping testers who had visited their training camp unannounced to take samples, a senior athletics authority official said, as the East African nation ramps up efforts to combat doping.

The AIU did not give any more details on the case. Kipketer was not immediately reachable for comment.

Under anti-doping regulations, athletes have to inform testing authorities of their whereabouts for a one-hour window of every day and three failures — not being present at the said time — within 12 months leads to an automatic ban.

In 2016, WADA put Kenya on its Category A list of nations on the watch for anti-doping violations.

Kenya plans to impose criminal penalties – including possible jail terms – on athletes caught doping, and was preparing new laws to deal with this, its sports minister said in December.

Last week, the AIU provisionally suspended Wilson Kipsang, Kenyan former marathon world record holder and bronze medallist at the 2012 Olympics, for failing to report his whereabouts and tampering with samples.

Kipsang's management company denied the case involved the use of doping and tampering with the doping test.