Peres Jepchirchir won the Sydney Marathon on 30 August, adding another major victory to an already stacked résumé. On Friday 23 October, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced a development that could have major consequences for the next phase of her career.

“The AIU has provisionally suspended reigning World and former Olympic champion, Peres Jepchirchir, after an out-of-competition sample, collected in Kenya before her recent Sydney Marathon victory, returned an adverse analytical finding for EPO,” the organisation said.

At this point, the AIU announcement isn’t a final ruling that Jepchirchir committed an anti-doping violation, and the case still has to work through the formal process.

Jepchirchir has spent years collecting titles across multiple distances.

Jepchirchir has spent years collecting titles across multiple distances. She won Olympic marathon gold at the 2021 Tokyo Games, then returned to Japan four years later to win the world marathon championship. Before either victory, she had already won two world half-marathon titles and set three world records at that distance. Her marathon personal best of 2:14:43 makes her the ninth-fastest woman of all time.

Sydney Marathon organisers responded Friday with a statement of their own, addressing the case and the event’s anti-doping efforts.

“Our commitment to clean sport is unwavering. Every athlete who lines up in Sydney deserves to race on a level playing field, and every participant and spectator deserves to trust the result they see at the finish line,” organisers said. “That conviction is why, alongside our fellow Abbott World Marathon Majors, we have invested in increased out-of-competition testing in partnership with the AIU, and why we will keep standing firmly with the athletes who compete cleanly.”

The World Marathon Majors separately pointed to the potential consequences if Jepchirchir is ultimately found to have committed a doping offence.

“Under our rules, in addition to any punishment imposed by World Athletics, national federations or any national anti-doping agency or government, any runner who has been found by such body to have committed a doping offence (at any competition or out of competition) and has been subject to a ban of three months or more, shall be banned from all WMM events for life unless otherwise agreed by WMM and be ineligible at any time to receive any WMM prize money or WMM points,” the organisation said.

Jepchirchir doesn’t currently meet the rule’s stated conditions: While she has been provisionally suspended, she hasn’t been found to have committed a doping offence or received a ban.

What comes next will depend on how the anti-doping case plays out. Runner’s World also reached out to Jepchirchir’s athlete representative, Gianni Demadonna, for comment.

“I can only say that I feel terrible about what happened,” Demadonna wrote in an email, “and I think it’s only right that an athlete who uses performance-enhancing drugs should be disqualified.”

This article first appeared on the Runner’s World USA website.

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