A Kenyan athlete famous because of the video posted, showing his dramatic final kilometers in the Padova Marathon in Italy has been sanctioned for doping.
Eliud Magut who was urged on to finish the 2014 St Anthony’s Marathon in the Italian region of Padua despite collapsing has been banned by the IAAF Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for four years after failing dope tests.
Magut with a marathon best of 2:10 and the winner of Cannes Marathon in France in 2012 will serve his ban till July 13th, 2022 which started from April 23, 2017.
Magut was nabbed after in competition tests, in the ‘Vienna City Marathon’, Vienna, Austria and ‘The Harmony Geneva Marathon for UNICEF’, Geneva, Switzerland.
Magut’s video sparked a storm of discussion and criticism of the race organization and the guy on a bicycle (apparently his agent) whose voice was heard throughout encouraging him to “finish”.
In the video, Magut is seen fighting on for a while, falling to the ground on a few occasions before picking himself up, then using the fence barriers to stagger towards the line.
Ultimately he fails, collapsing for the final time (around 2:52 into the video) before he is carried away on a stretcher, into an ambulance, and off to hospital.
Magut was gunning to finish third behind winner and compatriot Pharis Kimani and the 2007 Pan American Games Marathon champion Brazilian Franck Caldeira who was second.
Reports from Italy on the video posted on the Internet question why action to aid the clearly suffering Magut was taken too late.
One journalist posted the following on his Facebook wall:
Magut would have died as the medics watched, urging him on like a prize horse! Athletics Kenya really must act on this sort of modern slavery, in my opinion. Absolutely disgusting! The health of the athlete must come first”
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