The Athletics Integrity Union (AIU), the governing body for World Athletics, has imposed a four-year ban on Kenyan marathoner Sarah Chepchirchir following her failure of a doping test.
AIU made the announcement on Thursday, January 11, via its website, revealing that the athlete had been duly informed of the charges against her.
This marks Chepchirchir’s second ban, the first of which occurred on November 19, 2019, due to abnormalities discovered in her blood passport. The ban, backdated to commence in 2018, originated from a test conducted after her victory in the 2017 Tokyo Marathon, resulting in her absence from competitive racing for several years.
Before her initial ban, Chepchirchir represented Kenya twice in international competitions in 2011. Two years later, she achieved a personal best record in the Paris 20-kilometer race, completing it in 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 3 seconds.
As of now, Chepchirchir has not yet appealed her recent ban, which coincidentally comes a week after the visit of Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, to Kenya on January 5.
During his visit, Coe, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, addressed Kenya’s doping concerns, noting that over 70 athletes had been suspended in 2023 after testing positive for prohibited substances. Despite these cases, Kenya has not faced a complete ban similar to Russia.
Coe clarified the distinction, stating, “What is the difference between our approach to Kenya and the approach that we took with Russia? Let me make this clear, these are two very different cases. As was evident in the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) report, those (Russian cases) coverups were organised at the state authority level. There is no suggestion that is the case in Kenya, in fact, quite the reverse.”
In November of the previous year, Sports CS Ababu Namwamba pledged to shut down training camps flouting anti-doping regulations, accusing camps, coaches, and agents of jeopardising the careers of unsuspecting athletes without their knowledge. Namwamba conveyed this stern message during a press briefing at the Eliud Kipchoge Sports Complex in Kapsabet.
