Boston Marathon winner Diana Kipyokei of Kenya was suspended on Friday after testing positive for doping on the race and allegedly obstructing an investigation.
The Athletics Integrity Unit stated Kipyokei’s specimen after successful in October final yr had traces of triamcinolone acetonide. It is a glucocorticoid prohibited at races when an athlete doesn’t have permission to make use of it as a medicine.
The case has deepened suspicions the substance is a doping product of selection for athletes from Kenya.
In a second triamcinolone case revealed on Friday, Kenyan marathon runner Betty Wilson Lempus was additionally suspended whereas below investigation for doping and tampering.
Kipyokei can also be below investigation for “obstructing or delaying the AIU’s investigation by the availability of false data or documentation.”
The AIU didn’t elaborate in regards to the suspected tampering which could possibly be associated to a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) doc athletes have to have earlier than utilizing a medicine that’s in any other case prohibited.
The 28-year-old Kipyokei faces being banned for not less than 4 years and stripped of her Boston win and $150,000 prize cash.
“Kipyokei’s consequence within the 2021 Boston Marathon shall be disqualified, pending the completion of related athlete appeals processes,” race organizer the Boston Athletic Association stated in an announcement. “The BAA will modify race rankings and can present prize award changes to prime finishers of the 2021 occasion, pending the sanctioning.”
Kipyokei received the Boston ladies’s race in 2 hours, 24 minutes, 45 seconds which was 24 seconds forward of her Kenyan compatriot Edna Kiplagat
Kiplagat, a two-time world champion within the marathon who turns 43 subsequent month, is about to get her second Boston title. She additionally received in 2017.
A high-profile case of an athlete having a legitimate TUE for triamcinolone concerned British bike owner Bradley Wiggins who was permitted to take it in 2012 earlier than successful the Tour de France.