Former world champion Norah Jeruto’s doping suspension lifted

Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, who won the women’s steeplechase at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore., and who was subsequently suspended for abnormalities in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) in April 2023, has had her suspension lifted by the Athletics Integrity Unit. A majority decision that the offense was “not proven” resulted in the lifting of the suspension, effective immediately.

A panel of the Disciplinary Tribunal has found, by majority decision, that the case against Norah Jeruto (Kazakhstan), for Use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP), was not proven. Her provisional suspension has been lifted with immediate effect. pic.twitter.com/KxJs5Yt7DZ

— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) November 3, 2023

Jeruto has competed for Kazakhstan since late January, 2022; the 28-year-old was born in Kenya, but switched allegiances to Kazakhstan before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in hopes of selection, and received citizenship in January 2022. In July 2022, Jeruto became the first Kazakhstan athlete to win gold at the World Athletics Championships, setting a new championship and national record of 8:53.02 in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. She also won the 2021 Diamond League title in the same event.

The purpose of analyzing an athlete’s ABP data is to monitor select biological parameters over time that may indirectly reveal the effects of doping. This approach allows the AIU to generate individual, longitudinal profiles for each athlete and to look for any fluctuations that may indicate that the athlete has been using performance-enhancing drugs.

World champion Norah Jeruto suspended for doping

The case

The athlete chose to exercise her right to a hearing before the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal, which took place between April and October 2023.

Issues arose over numerous blood samples collected in 2020 and 2021, World Athletics asserting that abnormalities in some of these samples, including evidence of blood withdrawal, indicated evidence of blood doping (usually done with EPO). But as the AIU’s decision report explains, blood withdrawal is not, itself, against any rules, and does not constitute proof of doping, any more than purchasing a weapon constitutes attempted murder. The report concluded: “We do not consider evidence of blood withdrawal can be regarded by itself as “a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in the commission of an anti-doping rule violation.”

Further, in her defense, Jeruto claimed she suffers from severe bleeding ulcers caused by stressful events in her life, leading to severe anemia and treatment with a variety of medications; in addition, she became ill in August 2020 with what may have been a severe case of Covid-19, leading to her hospitalization. There was some disagreement among medical experts about Jeruto’s stomach bleeding symptoms, but on balance, the panel agreed it could not establish that a doping violation had taken place.

Meanwhile, Zerge Wondemagegn of Ethiopia, who finished fourth in the women’s steeplechase at this year’s world championships in Budapest, has been provisionally suspended for EPO.