Rio Olympic marathon winner Jemima Sumgong tested positive for EPO, track and field’s international governing body (IAAF) said Thursday.
Sumgong failed the drug test in February, according to London Marathon officials, which said that she is provisionally suspended and won’t be allowed to defend her London title April 23.
Sumgong, 32, became the first Kenyan woman to win the Olympic marathon in Rio.
Sumgong is the second star Kenyan women’s marathoner to test positive for EPO.
Rita Jeptoo, a former Sumgong training partner, was stripped of Boston and Chicago Marathon titles for testing positive for EPO in 2014 and is banned until October 2018.
“We are clean athletes,” Sumgong said after winning the Rio Olympic marathon, according to Letsrun.com. “In Kenya we are clean. Maybe doping [is] here and there. We are very clean. We assure you we are clean. With the scandal of Rita I don’t know about it [the details]. ... With the Kenyan athletes, we are sure we are clean. Myself I am sure I am clean. No doping scandal at all (with me).”
Sumgong previously tested positive for the banned substance prednisolone after finishing second at the 2012 Boston Marathon but was cleared on appeal by the IAAF as the injection she received was permitted under the governing body’s rules.
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