{"id":19325,"date":"2026-01-12T18:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T18:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19325\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T18:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T18:35:07","slug":"performance-enhancing-drug-kenyas-ny-marathon-champ-albert-korir-gets-drug-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19325\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance-enhancing drug : Kenya’s NY marathon champ Albert Korir gets drug suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Albert<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s former New York marathon champion Albert Korir was provisionally suspended on Monday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug in the latest hit to the reputation of the country\u2019s running programme. <\/p>\n

Korir, 31, tested positive for the synthetic form of erythropoietin (EPO) that stimulates red blood cell production, the World Athletics Integrity Unit said. <\/p>\n

He won the 2021 New York marathon in a time of 2:08:22, and came third in 2023 with a personal best time of 2:06:57, and he won the Ottawa marathon in 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said in October that Kenya had made \u201csignificant\u201d progress in tackling doping but the country remains on a six-month probation while it seeks to improve its monitoring. <\/p>\n

That month saw Ruth Chepngetich, the current world marathon record holder, banned for three years after admitting the use of Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a banned diuretic used as a masking agent.<\/p>\n

Running is a way out of poverty for many in Kenya, putting pressure on many to turn to drugs, especially since the country lacks the sophisticated infrastructure to train stars. <\/p>\n

Kenya worked to clean up its image after a string of doping scandals around the 2016 Rio Olympics led to it being declared non-compliant by WADA.<\/p>\n

More than 140 Kenyan runners, mainly long-distance runners, have been sanctioned for drugs offences since then.<\/p>\n

In June 2024, Kenya handed out its first lifetime ban to marathon runner Beatrice Toroitich and a six-year ban to 10km record-holder Rhonex Kipruto.<\/p>\n

aik\/er\/pb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenya\u2019s former New York marathon champion Albert Korir was provisionally suspended on Monday after testing positive for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[80],"class_list":{"0":"post-19325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-kenya"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}