AK president, Isaiah Kiplagat, said Friday they were yet to receive word from world governing body, IAAF or the World Anti Doping Agency (Wada) followings claims that surfaced online on RunBlogRun.com that Jeptoo’s urine sample from the test conducted in September had tested positive for banned substances.
Jeptoo went on to clock 2:24:35 on October 12 for victory in Chicago to wrap up a fourth successive World Marathon Majors (WMM) victory and in the process, clinch a share of the 2013/14 series jackpot worth USD500,000 (Sh44,699,969.3).
“I’m aware of the online reports about Jeptoo but until IAAF and WADA inform us officially, we cannot comment on the matter since it is a very serious issue. We don’t want to pre-empt anything and once we receive official communication, we shall address the issue,” Kiplagat said.
Jeptoo was at AK’s Riadha House headquarters in Nairobi on Thursday at a time she was supposed to have travelled to New York for the award ceremony of the WMM following Sunday’s marathon at the Big Apple.
“She could have been here for other things. What I know she is supposed to attend the Marathon Majors presentation in New York,” the President responded on Jeptoo’s citing at Riadha House.
According to the RunBlogRun.com reports, the positive bust would throw WMM into a spin but for a country that has vigorously defended her top athletes of never ending accusations of systematic doping; a positive bust of an athlete of Jeptoo’s standing would be disastrous.
WMM rules require a B-sample to test positive before taking further action besides official sanctions against the athlete from IAAF or national federation to strip any confirmed cheat of the jackpot and titles won in the period under review.
Jeptoo’s management, Rosa Associati, ran by Federico Rosa was yet to respond to email requests for confirmation by the time of penning this article.
Their former runner, Mathew Kisorio who has since served a two-year international ban for steroid use and resumed competition, was the highest profile Kenyan runner caught in the doping web when both of his samples failed in 2012.
Kisorio who captained Kenya to the 2011 World Cross in Punta Umbria was promptly ditched by Rosa Associati after his ban.
A recent Government Anti-Doping Task Force report accused AK of taking the issue of doping lightly with Kiplagat coming under scathing criticism and he is yet to respond to allegation contained in the findings.
According to them, 32 Kenyan athletes have tested positive with 17 failing drug tests in the period between 2012 and 13 in a huge rise that invited WADA to threaten to ban Kenya from international competitions last year if the Government did not investigate the cases.
Whilst most positive tests were deemed to be as a result of non-declaration of medication used by affected runners owing to the lack of sensitisation, a damning report by German TV ARD alleged systematic drug use in the top tier of the country sports.
In his terse response, Kiplagat slammed the reports saying no high ranking Kenyan runners had failed drug tests with the few cheats clustered in a group of mediocre athletes aiming to have a shortcut to fame.
Any confirmation of a failed test on Jeptoo will quickly reverse that assertion and the next few days will be nervous for AK and the country at large.