PARIS (AFP) - Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa, who won marathon silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016, has been suspended for four years for doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Monday (June 17).

She had been provisionally banned since May after the prohibited blood-booster EPO was detected in her blood sample. Her four-year suspension is backdated to May 7, 2019.

The 35-year-old finished second in Rio behind Kenya's Jemima Sumgong, who was banned for eight years in January for attempting to hinder an investigation into her use of EPO by supplying false documents.

Kirwa, who also won world bronze in Beijing in 2015, can appeal against the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

This is a further blow to the Kirwa family, after news last week that her younger brother Felix Kiptoo Kirwa has been banned nine months for failing a drug test.

The runner-up at last year's Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon was stripped of his silver medal and had his prize money forfeited. The 23-year-old tested positive for strychnine.