South Korea's sports governing body on Wednesday rejected a bid by Kenyan marathoner Wilson Loyanae Erupe to run as a Korean citizen at this year's summer Olympics in Brazil due to a doping scandal.
Erupe, who finished first at the 2016 Seoul International Marathon in March with a time of 2:05:1328, has applied for special naturalization as a sportsman, saying he wanted to represent South Korea in Rio de Janeiro.
But the Korean Olympic Committee refused to recommend him for special naturalization, citing a positive doping test.
The 27-year-old received a two-year ban from the International Association of Athletics Federation in February 2013 after he failed an out-of-competition doping test.
The committee refused to recognise Erupe's claim that the result of doping was caused by treatment for malaria. He has improved his record since he joined an athletic club run by the Cheongyang County last summer.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com