World Marathon Majors Issues Statement on Rita Jeptoo Testing Positive, Postpones WMM Award Ceremony

by: World Marathon Majors
October 31, 2014

(Editor’s note: The WMM has issued the following statement in response to Rita Jeptoo’s “A” sample reportedly coming back positive as first reported by Larry Eder of Run Blog Run. Jeptoo was the first athlete to win 4 straight World Marathon Majors and was going to receive the $500,000 prize at an award ceremony on Sunday after the New York City Marathon but that has been postponed).

World Marathon Majors is disappointed to learn that Rita Jeptoo has apparently had an A test that proved positive for a banned substance under IAAF rules.

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World Marathon Majors has been at the forefront of the fight against doping in our sport and has a rule that no athlete can win the World Marathon Majors Series title, who has been in breach of IAAF anti-doping rules. WMM events were the first major events to confirm that all elite athletes taking part in their events would be blood tested and have consistently called for wider testing by others. Additionally, WWM has previously agreed that any athlete found guilty of a doping offence will not be invited back to its races.

As part of that fight against doping, WMM has been giving support and financial help to the IAAF anti doping drive and helped fund a wider programme of out of competition testing.  

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Nick Bitel General Counsel of WMM said, “WMM has always held a stern line on drugs cheats and has been proactively supporting the sports governing bodies to ensure the integrity of the athletes competing in their races. Cheats need to understand that they are not welcome in our sport and that they will be caught.”

At present there has been no decision in this case by the IAAF, including in relation to sanctions, and as a result WMM is unable to comment further until that determination has been made although in the circumstances it has been decided to postpone the WMM Awards Ceremony that was due to take place on the 2nd November 2014.

*Discuss in the LRC Forums: Rita Jeptoo tests positive
*Jeptoo busted, WHO is next?

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