NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenyan national track coach Mike Kosgei was fired Thursday after it was revealed Bernard Lagat had tested positive and did not run at the World Championships, although his absence at the time was attributed to illness.

Lagat, an Olympic bronze medalist at the Sydney Games, had been scheduled to race in the 1,500 meters in Paris.

He tested positive for EPO, which enhances stamina. Kenyan track authorities were informed of the result by track and field's ruling body four days after the start of the worlds.

Athletic Kenya secretary general David Okeyo said Wednesday his organization withheld news of the drug test because it did not want to demoralize the Kenyan team.

AK chairman Isiah Kiplagat said it had become necessary to replace Kosgei. Kiplagat suggested that some coaches in his country were not sufficiently aware of the use of drugs in sports.

The International Associated of Athletics Federations also informed Kenya that Ambrose Bitok, who was sixth in the 5,000 meters in Linz, Austria on July 31, had tested positive for the banned performance enhancer norandrosterone, Kiplagat said. He said AK does not know Bitok and said he is apparently based outside Kenya

Kiplagat said a Kenyan committee was formed to look into doping. Among those named are Kipchoge Keino, the 1,500-meter gold medalist in the 1968 Olympics, five-time world cross country champion Paul Tergat and two-time Boston Marathon champion Moses Tanui.

In June, Kenya banned cross-country runner Pamela Chepchumba for two years after two blood samples taken during the world cross-country championships in March tested positive.