Kenyan Rita Jeptoo‘s doping ban has been doubled, to October 30, 2018, and her 2014 Boston and Chicago Marathon wins were stripped, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Wednesday.
Jeptoo repeated as Boston Marathon winner in 2014, one year after twin bombings rocked the world’s oldest annual 26.2-mile race, in a women’s course record 2:18:57.
Jeptoo, 35, tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition sample in Kenya on Sept. 25, 2014, three weeks before she won her second straight Chicago Marathon.
Athletics Kenya handed Jeptoo a backdated two-year suspension in January 2015, a punishment that was appealed by the IAAF, which sought a longer ban. Jeptoo also appealed the ban but later withdrew her motion.
“In coming to its decision, the Panel found to its comfortable satisfaction that the athlete used rEPO over a period of time to enhance performance,” the court said in a press release Wednesday. “The undisputed source of the rEPO found in her sample of 25 September 2014 was an injection given to her by a doctor. The athlete provided various differing accounts of the circumstances leading up to the injection and also regarding her relationship with that doctor.
“According to the applicable rules, the minimum period of ineligibility in this situation is a sanction of two years but can be increased to up to four years in the case of aggravating circumstances. The Panel is comfortably satisfied that there are aggravating circumstances in the case at hand as it was obvious to the Panel that the athlete used rEPO as part of a scheme or plan. The evidence for this includes inter alia her long relationship with the doctor in question, her multiple visits to see him, that her rEPO use was consistent with her competition calendar, that she hid the visits to the doctor in question from her manager and coach, as well as her deceptive and obstructive conduct throughout the proceedings. Weighing all the evidence, the Panel is comfortably satisfied that the circumstances warrant a period of ineligibility of four years.”
Ethiopians Buzunesh Deba and Mare Dibaba stand to be upgraded from second to first in the 2014 Boston and Chicago Marathons, respectively. Deba’s time of 2:19:59 stands to be the new Boston women’s course record.
Jeptoo also won the Boston Marathon in 2006.
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