Peres Jepchirchir, marathon gold medalist at the Olympics and World Championships, has been provisionally suspended by the athletics integrity unit after an out-of-competition sample tested positive for EPO.
Kenyan Jepchirchir provided the sample before winning the Sydney Marathon on August 30, 2026.
The 33-year-old clocked two hours, 18 minutes and 31 seconds to win in Sydney.
EPO, or erythropoietin, is a natural substance produced in the kidneys that stimulates the creation of new red blood cells.
If injected, it is only detectable in urine or blood for a short time and increases the amount of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to muscles, in the bloodstream.
Jepchirchir became Olympic champion in the women’s marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and returned to the Japanese capital to win the World Championships in September 2025.
She broke the women’s half marathon world record in 2017 and three times in 2020.
Besides Sydney, his other major victories came at the New York Marathon in 2021, the Boston Marathon in 2022 and the London Marathon in 2024.
Jepchirchir won the Sydney race, which will become the seventh major in the world in 2025, with more than three minutes ahead of her compatriot Irene Chepet Cheptai.
She provided the sample that tested positive for EPO while she was in Kenya before the race.
Gn sports
