AIU PROVISIONALLY SUSPENDS PERES JEPCHIRCHIR OVER EPO TEST

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended Kenyan marathon runner Peres Jepchirchir on Friday after an out-of-competition sample tested positive for EPO. The AIU said officials collected the sample in Kenya before Jepchirchir won the Sydney Marathon in August 2026. EPO is a banned blood-boosting substance. The AIU is investigating the case while Jepchirchir serves the provisional suspension.

Jepchirchir holds the women’s world marathon title, which she won in Tokyo in September 2025. She won Olympic marathon gold at the Tokyo Games held in 2021 and has claimed two individual world half-marathon titles. Her four World Marathon Major victories came in New York in 2021, Boston in 2022, London in 2024 and Sydney in 2026. Her London victory set a women’s-only marathon world record, and she previously held a half-marathon world record. She stands fifth in the current world rankings.

The AIU says it has suspended or banned more than 140 Kenyan athletes since 2017. Ruth Chepng’etich received a three-year ban from April 2025 after she admitted using hydrochlorothiazide, a banned diuretic. That sanction stripped Chepng’etich of results, titles and prize money from the date of her positive test in March 2025; her 2024 Chicago marathon world record stands. World Athletics has awarded Nairobi the 2029 world championships. A day before the AIU announced Jepchirchir’s suspension, Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga received a six-year ban for a positive methylprednisolone test and tampering with the investigation.