adminNAIROBI. — Kenya’s athletics bosses came in for fierce criticism on Saturday after it emerged Rita Jeptoo, currently the world’s leading female marathon runner, tested positive in an out-of-competition anti-doping test.
A senior Athletics Kenya official, vice president Jackson Tuwei, has revealed to AFP that Jeptoo’s ‘A’ sample had contained traces of the blood-boosting drug EPO, the same blood-boosting drug used by Lance Armstrong to cheat his way to seven Tour de France wins.
The revelation has stunned Kenya, whose naturally gifted distance runners are a major source of national pride, but has also left Athletics Kenya bosses facing renewed allegations of having ignored a worsening problem.
“If Kenya wants to win back, or at least buffer the loss of trust that is inevitable as a result of the Jeptoo test, then it must immediately and without delay open the system up to independent international scrutiny,” wrote Ross Tucker, a prominent South African sports scientist.
“That means naming the coaches, agents and support systems of Jeptoo, and fully exposing this particular problem,” said Tucker, who runs the influential sportsscientists.com website.
Jeptoo, a three-times winner of the Boston marathon and a two-time champion in Chicago, is also the biggest name in Kenyan athletics ever to have been tested positive.
World Marathon Majors (WMM) organisers also said they were postponing the awarding of this year’s US$500 000 prize to 33-year-old Jeptoo. She had been due to attend the New York marathon on Sunday to collect the prize, the biggest payout in distance running. — AFP
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