Marathoner’s positive doping test casts pall over Kenya running world

The world’s top female marathon runner, Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo, has tested positive for the banned blood-boosting drug EPO during an out-of-competition doping control, Kenya’s athletics governing body told AFP Friday. The revelation is likely to be met with shock and disbelief in Kenya, whose distance runners are a major source of national pride. 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.

Those are lies.

Rita Jeptoo after a meeting with senior athletics officials on Thursday

Kenya has been under pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency to take action over doping after 17 of its athletes tested positive between January 2012 and June 2013. At least 36 Kenyan athletes have failed dope tests in the past two years. Kenya’s Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario made public an Anti-Doping Task Force Report in Nairobi two weeks ago at which he blamed the growing doping cases in Kenya on foreign agents and Athletics Kenya’s failure to educate its athletes.

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