Nairobi (AFP)
The 3000m steeplechase world champion Conseslus Kipruto announced on Saturday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and that he would therefore not participate in the Diamond League meeting, scheduled in Monaco next week.
The 25-year-old Kenyan, gold medalist at the 2016 Olympics, discovered that she had contracted the coronavirus, as part of a compulsory pre-competition test, conducted Friday in Eldoret, in western Kenya.
"Unfortunately, the test came back positive, so I can't be part of the team," he told AFP on Saturday.
Kipruto, who was one of the headliners in Monaco, was among 11 Kenyan athletes who have obtained a visa to participate in the meeting, which is due to start on Friday.
"It is very disappointing, after training so hard during this time of pandemic, not to be able to participate in the competition this year," Kipruto added. "But my health is more important".
The athlete clarified on Instagram that he was not experiencing any symptoms of the disease.
Monaco is the first meeting of the season in the Diamond League, the queen series of world athletics, the calendar of which had to be strongly revised due to the epidemic of the new coronavirus.
After him, will follow Stockholm (August 23), Brussels (September 4), and Rome / Naples (September 17). The Doha meeting, initially scheduled for October 9, was finally postponed to September 25. The Diamond League will end in China on October 17, in a city yet to be determined.
Six stages have been canceled so far due to the health crisis: Eugene (United States), London, Paris, Rabat, Gateshead (Great Britain) and Shanghai (China).
© 2020 AFP