Kenyan marathon star Peres Jepchirchir has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after an out-of-competition sample collected in Kenya returned an adverse analytical finding for erythropoietin (EPO).
The AIU said in a statement on Friday, October 23, that it collected the sample in Kenya before Jepchirchir’s victory at the Sydney Marathon in August.
The sample returned an adverse analytical finding for EPO, a performance-enhancing substance that stimulates red blood cell production and increases the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity.
As a result, the finding led to the provisional suspension of the 33-year-old runner.
“The AIU has provisionally suspended reigning World and former Olympic champion, Peres Jepchirchir, after an out-of-competition sample, collected in Kenya prior to her recent Sydney Marathon victory, returned an adverse analytical finding for EPO,” the AIU said.
“The highly decorated Kenyan marathon runner, a former world record-holder in the half-marathon, is a four-time World Marathon Major winner, having captured the Sydney Marathon (2026), the London Marathon (2024), the Boston Marathon (2022) and the New York Marathon (2021).”
Also Read: Peres Jepchirchir: Kenyan Athlete Who Broke Women Only World Marathon Record
The suspension comes just a day after the agency handed Ethiopia’s former Tokyo Marathon winner, Ruti Aga, a six-year ban for a positive test for methylprednisolone and tampering with the investigation.
Jepchirchir, the reigning world champion and former Olympic champion, is among Kenya’s most decorated long-distance runners.
Kenyan Jepchirchir is a four-time World Marathon Major winner and claimed Olympic gold in the marathon at Tokyo 2020.
She won the world marathon title for the first time in Tokyo last September, adding to her two individual half-marathon world titles, and is both a former world record holder in the half-marathon and a former women’s-only world record holder in the marathon, set when she won in London in 2024.
Jepchirchir withdrew from this year’s London Marathon after sustaining a stress fracture after finishing second in the Valencia marathon last December, and will return to top-level competition in Sydney.
She is currently ranked fifth in the world.
Peres Jepchirchir Athletic Records
Peres Jepchirchir made her marathon debut – and not exactly an intended one – at the age of 20 at the Kisumu Safaricom Marathon.
“I was going there for the 10k, and then I arrived, and the 10k was only for people from that area,” she recalls. “I remember it a lot because I ran that first marathon without any long runs,” she told World Athletics.
Running in the altitude of Kisumu, Jepchirchir finished third in 2:47:33, more than 30 minutes short of her current Personal Best.
Also Read: Full List of Kenyan Elite Athletes at the Amsterdam Marathon 2026
Jepchirchir was the champion at the 2016 and 2020 World Half Marathon Championships.
Her best time for the half marathon of 1:05:06, set on 10 February 2017 in the UAE, is a former half marathon world record.
Similarly, her 2:17:16 victory at the Valencia Marathon at the end of 2020 secured her place on the Kenyan team.
She also won the 2021 New York City Marathon in 2:22:39 and the 2022 Boston Marathon in a record 2:21:02, and finished third at the 2023 London Marathon.
In 2022, Jepchirchir became the first woman in history to win Olympic, New York, and Boston titles.
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