In a fresh blow for Kenyan athletics, the women’s world marathon champion, Peres Jepchirchir, has been provisionally suspended for doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Friday.
The highly decorated 33-year-old, who won Olympic gold in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, was suspended after an out-of-competition sample tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO.
The athlete is provisionally suspended while the case is investigated, while the AIU said Jepchirchir’s out-of-competition sample had been collected in Kenya before her recent Sydney Marathon victory.
More than 140 Kenyan athletes, including the women’s marathon world record-holder, Ruth Chepngetich, have been suspended or banned by the AIU since 2017.
Jepchirchir’s lauded career includes a world record in the half-marathon, while she is a four-time World Marathon major winner, having captured the 2026 Sydney Marathon, the 2024 London Marathon, the 2022 Boston Marathon and the 2021 New York Marathon.
The decision of World Athletics to award Nairobi the 2029 world championships is likely to increase the scrutiny of the east African nation’s anti-doping policies.
Barnabas Korir, Athletics Kenya’s youth development director and vice-president of the national Olympic committee, said he was left feeling shocked by the news of the suspension. “It’s a big disappointment coming soon after we were awarded the World Athletics Championship in 2029,” Korir told AFP. “We are in shock, especially in the calibre of Peres Jepchirchir after a stellar career. We don’t know what is happening with our athletes.”
Jepchirchir’s manager, Gianni Demadona, said she had tarnished her reputation. “When I learned from the AIU three days ago that she had been tested positive for EPO, I was confused and shocked,” Demadona said. “I can’t say anything because I was trusting her after 13 years working together that she was one of the most trustable athletes around. I was completely wrong. She spoiled her long and amazing career and she closes her career in the worst way.”
Kenya played host to a three-day visit from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) this month, with the body’s president, Witold Banka, telling the country that it had to strive for zero tolerance on doping.
“Kenya proudly calls itself the home of champions. But for that home to remain respected and credible, it must also be clean,” Banka said. “That is why Kenya needs a strong culture of clean sport, zero tolerance for doping, and a more determined approach to preventing and fighting doping.”
Banka said that joint cooperation with Kenyan authorities would help lay the foundations for a cleaner sport. “Wada or Adak [Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya] alone cannot achieve its vision if we do not cooperate with those who have the power to go against those who are producing, smuggling and trafficking dangerous steroids to your athletes,” he said.
“We’ve found a common understanding and we are on the same track and there’s a clear goal within Kenya for zero tolerance for doping policy and it has to be established immediately with joint actions and a more aggressive approach to those who are destroying the image of the country and the reputation of the athletes.”
