Promising Kenyan long-distance runner becomes first doping casualty of 2025 as she gets three-year ban

Kenya's Faith Chepchirchir Kiprotich who has been handed a three-year doping ban.

Promising Kenyan long-distance runner becomes first doping casualty of 2025 as she gets three-year ban

Joel Omotto 21:47 - 14.01.2025

The 23-year-old has been suspended from competition after admitting to the use of banned substance norandrosterone.

Kenyan athlete Faith Chepchirchir Kiprotich has been handed a three-year doping ban after testing positive for banned substance norandrosterone.

The ban comes just a week after the long-distance runner was provisionally suspended, pending the outcome of her case, after she had been put on the defence over the anti-doping rule violation.

Having initially claimed that she did not dope, Kiprotich would admit to her mistake, leading to a reduced ban from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which slapped her with a three-year ban instead of the mandatory four.

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“On 7 January 2025, the AIU gave the Athlete until no later than 9 January 2025 to provide any explanation for the Adverse Analytical Findings. On the same day, the Athlete requested an extension of the deadline, which was granted by the AIU until 15 January 2025,” the AIU said in their statement released on Tuesday.

“On 8 January 2025, the athlete wrote to the AIU stating that she accepted that the prohibited substance was found in her Samples, but that she could not remember how the substance entered her body.

“January 2025, the Athlete informed the AIU that she accepted the Consequences and on 11 January 2025, the AIU received an Admission of Anti-Doping Rule Violations and Acceptance of Consequences Form signed by the Athlete (dated 9 January 2025).”

Kiprotich becomes the first Kenyan athlete to be handed a doping ban this year, with her suspension halting what was a promising athletics career.

The 23-year-old won the Lisbon Half Marathon last October, her second win of the season, after claiming the women’s 10 miles at the Tilburg Ten Miles in the Netherlands a month earlier.

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