Olympic and world marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir has been provisionally suspended over a positive drug test for the banned substance EPO, the Athletics Integrity Unit said Friday.
Jepchirchir won women's marathon gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the world title last year. She has won major marathons at New York (2021), Boston (2022), London (2024) and Sydney (2026) and is ranked fifth in the world for the women's marathon.
She also made history when she broke the half marathon world record in 2017 while in the early stages of pregnancy, according to governing body World Athletics. She gave birth to a daughter eight months after that.
The AIU, which investigates doping in track and field on behalf of the sport's governing body World Athletics, posted on X that "an out-of-competition sample, collected in Kenya prior to her recent Sydney Marathon victory, returned an adverse analytical finding for EPO."
Jepchirchir's representative Gianni Demadonna declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
In most doping cases in international sports, athletes are provisionally suspended from competing until the case is either resolved with a verdict or dropped.
Sydney Marathon organizers said in a statement Friday that they were "extremely disappointed" to hear of Jepchirchir's suspension.
"Jepchirchir is entitled to due process, and we will make no further comment on the case until that process has concluded," the statement said. "Our commitment to clean sport is unwavering. Every athlete who lines up in Sydney deserves to race on a level playing field, and every participant and spectator deserves to trust the result they see at the finish line."
It's the latest in a long series of doping cases involving distance runners from Kenya, which was awarded the 2029 world track championships last month.
Women's marathon world record holder Ruth Chepng'etich, who is also from Kenya, was banned for three years in 2025 after admitting to a charge related to a positive test for a banned diuretic. Former New York Marathon winner Albert Korir was given a five-year ban in March.
World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka said this month that Kenya needs a "more determined approach" to retain its credibility in sports.
"Kenya proudly calls itself the home of champions. But for that home to remain respected and credible, it must also be clean," Banka said during a visit to the East African nation. "That is why Kenya needs a strong culture of clean sport, zero tolerance for doping and a more determined approach to preventing and fighting doping."
The suspension of Jepchirchir was announced a day after the AIU said it issued a six-year ban to Ruti Aga, a top marathon runner from Ethiopia. The AIU said Aga tested positive for a banned substance and then submitted a fake prescription for the substance from a clinic that turned out not to exist.