Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya celebrates after the Men's 3,000m Steeplechase Final at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Oct. 4, 2019. (Xinhua/Jia Yuchen)
Kenya's Olympic and world champion Conseslus Kipruto tested positive for COVID-19 and had to give up on his bid to break the 3,000m steeplechase record at the Herculis Diamond League meeting in Monaco next week.
NAIROBI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Olympic and world champion Conseslus Kipruto announced on Saturday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Kipruto had to give up on his bid to break the 3,000m steeplechase record at the Herculis Diamond League meeting in Monaco next week.
He was planning to attack the 7:53.63 race standard set by Kenyan-born Qatari, Saif Saeed Shaheen in Brussels in September 2004.
"Unfortunately my COVID-19 test, as part of the Monaco-protocol, came back positive and therefore I can't be part of the Monaco Diamond League on Aug. 14. I don't have any symptoms, and I was actually in great shape," he said.
"I was planning to go for the world record: it has stayed too long outside Kenya. As the World and Olympic Champion, I strongly feel it's something I should go for as well," part of Kipruto's statement posted on his Instagram account and copied to his other social media handles read.
The Rio 2016 Olympics and Doha 2019 worlds gold winner added he would go into isolation and asked organizers in Europe to organize a steeplechase race before the disrupted season ends for him to mount a comeback.
Kipruto and his compatriots had earned visas to travel to France after the country's sports cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed and head of Athletics Kenya Jack Tuwei, intervened on their behalf when the east African country was placed among the nations not cleared to travel to the European Union. ■