Kenyan former Olympic marathon champion suspended after failed drugs test

Former Olympic and world marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned substance EPO, officials have said.

The Kenyan athlete, who won the marathon gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and last year's Athletics World Championships, tested positive before winning the Sydney Marathon in August, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said.

The AIU, which investigates doping in track and field on behalf of the sport's governing body World Athletics, said on X that "an out-of-competition sample, collected in Kenya prior to her recent Sydney Marathon victory, returned an adverse analytical finding for EPO [erythropoietin]".

Jepchirchir, 33, also won the women's elite race at the 2024 London Marathon and is a former world record holder in the half marathon. She is ranked fifth in the world marathon rankings by World Athletics.

In addition to the London and Sydney events, her other World Marathon ‌Majors ⁠wins came in New York (2021) and Boston (2022).

Her representative Gianni Demadonna told Reuters via email: "I can only say that I ​feel terrible about what happened and I think it's ​only right that an athlete who uses performance-enhancing drugs should be disqualified.

Typically in international sport, athletes are provisionally suspended from competing until the case is either resolved with a verdict or dropped.

It's the latest in a long series of doping cases involving distance runners from Kenya, which was awarded the 2029 World Athletic Championships last month, the first African country to host the event.

Jepchirchir's fellow Kenyan, women's marathon world record holder Ruth Chepng'etich, was banned for three years in 2025 after admitting to a charge related to a positive test for a banned diuretic.

Former New York Marathon winner Albert Korir was given a five-year ban in March.

World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka said this month, while visiting the East African nation, that Kenya needs a "more determined approach" to retain its credibility in sports.

"Kenya proudly calls itself the home of champions. But for that home to remain respected and credible, it must also be clean," said Banka.

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On Thursday, the AIU banned another leading women's marathon runner, Ethiopia's Ruti Aga, for six years, after she tested positive for a banned substance and presented a fake prescription for the substance from a clinic that did not exist.

(c) Sky News 2026: Kenyan former Olympic marathon champion suspended after failed drugs test