Olympic marathon champion fails drugs test
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Jemima Sumgong, the first Kenyan
woman to win Olympic marathon gold when she triumphed at Rio in 2016,
has failed an out-of-competition doping test, reports claimed on Friday.
The 32-year-old, who is also the
reigning London Marathon champion, tested positive for the banned blood
booster EPO in a test by the International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF) in her native Kenya, the BBC reported.
"We can confirm that an
anti-doping rule violation case concerning
Jemima Sumgong has commenced
this week," www.bbc.com quoted the IAAF as saying in a statement.
"The athlete tested positive for EPO following a no-notice test in Kenya."
The IAAF did not respond when asked by AFP for confirmation of the report early on Friday.
Sumgong starred at the London Marathon last year, defying the odds to win despite suffering a bruising fall.
Steeled by her success in London, she then became the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic marathon gold in Rio.
Sumgong defeated Ethiopia’s world champion Mare Dibaba to confirm her status as the world’s No 1 marathon runner of the year.
Before claims of a positive
drugs test emerged, Sumgong said she was looking forward to returning to
London to defend her title on 23 April.
"London is the marathon every runner wants to win," she said. "I can’t wait to return to defend my title."
Tim Hadzima, general manager at
Abbott World Marathon Majors, organiser of the world's largest marathons
including London, said the organisation was "distressed" by the
reports, but said that "if true, they indicate that we are gaining
ground in our long-standing fight against doping".
At the Rio Olympics, Sumgong
defied temperatures of 28 degrees Celsius to claim an historic gold
medal in a race which finished at the city's famed Sambodromo.
"It was very hot but everybody
had to get through the heat. I had to control my body and listen to my
body very carefully," said Sumgong, who added that victory made up for
her disappointing showing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"I was in Beijing but I was
pretty disappointed that I wasn't able to win a medal or make it on the
podium, but I knew one time, one day, I'd be somewhere," she said.
"I was never worried that I'd lose this. At the 40km I knew the gold was mine."
TARNISHED IMAGE
Earlier this year, Sumgong was
one of a number of top Kenyan athletes who welcomed a new initiative to
stop doping, which has tarnished their image, in which they agreed to be
monitored by doctors appointed by the IAAF and Athletics Kenya.
"It will be easy for us now to communicate with these doctors before we take any medicine when the need arises," said Sumgong.
In July last year, an
investigation by German television channel ARD and Britain's Sunday
Times newspaper alleged that doping is rife at the elite training centre
in Iten.
Sumgong's former training
partner, the 2014 Chicago and Boston Marathon champion Rita Jeptoo, is
serving a four-year ban after also testing positive for EPO.
Athletics Kenya chief Jackson
Tuwei warned that any athlete who failed to comply would not be selected
to represent Kenya in international competitions.
"Forty-nine athletes have been
found to have violated the Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) code in the
past five years but were cautioned according to the laws of the land and
Wada code," said Tuwei.
News of Sumgong's test was
welcomed by other athletes. US distance runner Emma Coburn, a bronze
medallist in the 3 000m steeplechase at last year's Olympics, applauded
the IAAF's out-of-competition testing.
"Out of competition testing is
so important!! Well done, IAAF. I hope to see more productive results
from no-notice out of competition tests," Coburn wrote on Twitter.
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