Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Olympic and world marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir has been provisionally suspended over a positive test for the banned blood booster EPO that was taken before her victory in the recent Sydney Marathon.
The Athletics Integrity Unit said on Friday the 33-year-old distance running great gave an out-of-competition sample back in Kenya that returned an adverse analytical finding for the banned substance which boosts the production of red blood cells.
“I can only say that I feel terrible about what happened and I think it’s only right that an athlete who uses the performance enhancing drugs should be disqualified,” Jepchirchir’s agent Gianni Demadonna said in a statement.
Jepchirchir is one of the greats of road racing, the Tokyo Olympic champion in 2021, who’s been a holder of the women’s-only world marathon record as well as the world half-marathon record. Twice, she’s been world half-marathon champion.
Her dominant triumph in Sydney on August 30 only added to her remarkable record in major big city marathons, having triumphed in New York (2021), Boston (2022), London (2024) and Sydney (2026).
Jepchirchir destroyed the field in Sydney, clocking two hours 18 miniutes and 31 seconds as finished over three minutes ahead of the second-placed fellow Kenyan Irine Cheptai, who is now set to be handed the title.
It’s the latest doping scandal involving distance runners from Kenya, which was last month awarded the 2029 world athletics championships, to be staged in Nairobi. It’s the first time the event will have been staged in Africa.
Last year, the women’s marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich was banned for three years after admitting anti-doping rule violations involving hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a prohibited diuretic.
Her world record of 2:09:56, though, stayed on the books because it was set before her positive test.
Former New York Marathon winner Albert Korir was given a five-year ban in March.
With agencies
