A faked photograph has cost former marathon world-record holder Wilson Kipsang of Kenya a four-year suspension from competition for violating anti-doping rules.

Kipsang used a photo of an alleged traffic accident to justify one of four missed test appointments, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday.

World Athletics said Kipsang, a bronze medalist at the 2012 Olympics, had four missed appointments between April 2018 and May 2019. Three such failures in a 12-month span lead to an automatic ban.

Kipsang, 38, said he missed his test on May 17, 2019 due to a traffic accident involving an overturned truck and submitted a photo of the crash. However, an AIU investigation revealed the image was from an accident that took place on Aug 19, 2019.

"The World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal has banned long-distance runner Wilson Kipsang of Kenya for four years with effect from Jan 10, 2020, for whereabouts failures and tampering by providing false evidence and witness testimony," the AIU said in a statement.

"The athlete engaged in fraudulent and deceitful conduct by providing deliberately misleading and false information to the AIU in an attempt to obstruct and delay the investigation into his explanation and/or prevent normal procedures from occurring, namely the recording of a missed test against him," it added.

Kipsang was provisionally suspended in January.

Jackson Tuwei, president of Athletics Kenya, said the ruling is "very sad" news for the east African nation.

"Athletes should learn from such consequences because these are the things that we keep talking about every day. And unfortunately we still continue getting these kinds of results," he said.

"It affects everybody. It demoralizes even ourselves. Why do they continue getting into that, particularly top athletes, elite athletes, who should be role models? They are giving a bad example."

Tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control results in a mandatory four-year ban.

Kipsang's competitive results from April 12, 2019 to Jan 10, 2020 were also disqualified. He has the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The runner's management company said that "no prohibited substance was ever found" and indicated it would study the decision and consider an appeal.

"We emphasize that there is no case of use of doping," the company said in a statement.

"The decision is not final and conclusive yet. Wilson has the opportunity to appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport."

Kipsang joins a list of compatriots who have been sanctioned by World Athletics in recent years, including 2008 Olympic 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, former Boston and Chicago Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo and 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemimah Sumgong.

Kenya was among the countries placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA's) compliance watch list in 2016.