Rita Jeptoo tests positive for EPO

After earlier reports that Rita Jeptoo’s ‘A’ sample from an out-of-competition doping test had returned positive for a banned substance, AFP has reported that the test found EPO in the Kenyan distance star’s urine. The test was done at the end of September in Kenya shortly before her recent Chicago Marathon win.

“After we received the letter from the IAAF, we summoned Rita Jeptoo for a meeting in Nairobi. She denied having taken any drugs,” Jackson Tuwei, Athletics Kenya’s vice president, told AFP. “We cannot condemn her. She has a right to contest it”

EPO is used to boost the levels the red blood cells, greatly improving endurance by allowing the blood to carry more oxygen to the muscles, similar to training at high altitudes.

Jeptoo is the top female marathon runner in the world, having won the previous two Boston and Chicago marathons and was scheduled to be awarded with the World Marathon Majors $500,000 on Sunday after the New York City Marathon, though that has been postponed and she may be found ineligible for the prize due to the positive test.

The positive test brings more into question problems with Kenya’s doping authorities who have recently been meeting with IAAF officials about combating what some believe to be widespread doping in the East African country.