{"id":19454,"date":"2026-01-12T19:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19454\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T19:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:59:11","slug":"kenyas-2021-new-york-marathon-champ-albert-korir-gets-drug-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19454\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya\u2019s 2021 New York marathon champ Albert Korir gets drug suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">NAIROBI \u2013 Kenya\u2019s former New York marathon champion Albert Korir was provisionally suspended on Jan 12 after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug in the latest hit to the reputation of the country\u2019s running programme. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/sport\/smashed-records-bring-new-focus-to-marathon-ahead-of-new-york?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">won the 2021 New York marathon<\/p>\n<p><\/a> in a time of 2hr 8min 22sec, and came second in 2023 with a personal best 2:06:57. He was third in 2024 and 2025, clocking 2:08:00 and 2:08:57 respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He also won the Ottawa marathon in 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">That month saw Ruth Chepngetich, the current world marathon record holder, banned for three years after admitting the use of hydrochlorothiazide, a banned diuretic used as a masking agent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">More than 140 Kenyan runners, mainly long-distance runners, have been sanctioned for drugs offences since then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">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. AFP<\/p>\n<p>AthleticsDopingMarathonsKenya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAIROBI \u2013 Kenya\u2019s former New York marathon champion Albert Korir was provisionally suspended on Jan 12 after testing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[80],"class_list":{"0":"post-19454","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\/19454","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=19454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}