Bad newsOlympic Marathon Champion Jepchirchir Suspended After Positive EPO Test Before Sydney Win
Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir, the Olympic and world marathon champion, has been provisionally suspended after an out-of-competition sample taken before her Sydney Marathon win tested positive for EPO. She has not been found guilty.
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Peres Jepchirchir, the Olympic and world marathon champion, has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit after a positive test for the banned blood-booster EPO. The Associated Press reports that the AIU, which investigates doping in track and field for World Athletics, said the finding came from an out-of-competition sample collected in Kenya before her Sydney Marathon victory. A provisional suspension bars an athlete from competing while a case is decided. It is not a verdict.
The BBC reports that Jepchirchir, who is 33, gave the sample before she won in Sydney on 30 August in 2:18:31, more than three minutes clear of her compatriot Irene Chepet Cheptai. EPO stimulates the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the muscles. If injected, it can be detected in urine or blood for only a short window, according to the BBC. The sources do not say what happens to her Sydney result if the case is upheld.
Her representative, Gianni Demadonna, declined to comment when the AP contacted him. The Sydney Marathon organisers said they were extremely disappointed, that Jepchirchir is entitled to due process, and that they would say no more until that process ends.
A record that raises the stakes
Jepchirchir won Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and the world title in the same city in 2025, and she has won the New York, Boston and London marathons. The BBC says she is also a former half-marathon world record holder. She is ranked fifth in the world in the women’s marathon, the AP reports.
Her case lands on a sport that is already under scrutiny. The AP notes that Kenya’s marathon world record holder, Ruth Chepng’etich, was banned for three years in 2025 after admitting a charge linked to a positive test for a banned diuretic. Former New York Marathon winner Albert Korir received a five-year ban in March. Kenya was awarded the 2029 world track championships last month, which would make it the first African host.
No hearing date has been published in either source. The outcome will turn on the analysis of the sample and on whatever explanation Jepchirchir offers, and neither is public yet.
