Former Olympic and world champion Asbel Kiprop has maintained that he is “clean” after reports indicated that he failed a drugs test.

The three-time 1500m world champion reportedly tested positive for the performance enhancing drug erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition test.

According to UK’s Daily Mail, Kiprop has denied the doping allegations saying he’s a clean athlete.

“I would not want to ruin all what I have worked for since my first international race in 2007. I hope I can prove that I am a clean athlete in every way possible.” Kiprop is quoted by The Daily Mail.

28 year Kiprop, who is touted as the finest 1500m runner of the last decade, won his first global title at the age of 19 in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he finished second before dominating the scene and holding the world championship record for three years; 2011, 2013 and 2015.

A number of Kenyan athletes have been  increasingly falling to doping. More than 40 athletes have failed drugs tests over the past five years.

Rio 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemima Samgong, who made history by becoming Kenya’s first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the marathon, was handed a four-year ban in 2017 after testing positive for the blood-booster (EPO). Samgong had also tested positive for prednisone in 2012.

Kenya’s multi-marathon champion Rita Jeptoo, who had been Samgong’s trainning partner was also banned for four years after she also tested positive for EPO in 2014.

KENYA NEARLY LOCKED OUT OF 2016 OLYMPICS

Kenya was almost locked out of the Olympics for bordering on being declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Wada had accused the country of not shown the goodwill of dealing with the doping menace, which included passing an anti-doping Bill and the funding of a national anti-doping agency.

“Yes, if it means pulling them out of World Championships or Olympic Games then we will have to do that. I know the World Anti-Doping Agency has looked very closely at the Kenyan National Anti-Doping Agency. We, of course, monitor that through the IAAF so that work is on-going,” Sebastian Coe, the president of International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had said ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.