Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion tested positive for prohibited substance EPO

Bahrain’s Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Ruth Jebet has been banned for four years, the Athletics Integrity Unit has announced.

The 23-year-old, who is also the former women’s world 3000m steeplechase record-holder, tested positive for the blood-booster EPO in an out-of-competition sample taken on December 1, 2017.

Jebet denied intentionally taking the substance, so the case was referred to a disciplinary tribunal, which ruled that she should be handed a four-year ban and lose her results from the date the sample was taken through to February 4, 2018.

Having been provisionally suspended from February 4, 2018, Jebet’s four-year ban will backdated to that date.

The full disciplinary tribunal decision document can be found here and Jebet has the right to appeal the decision.

The Kenyan-born steeplechaser won her Olympic title after she clocked 8:59.75 to finish ahead of Kenya’s Hyvin Jepkemoi and Emma Coburn of the USA in Rio. Later that month, Jebet ran 8:52.78 to break the world record in Paris, whereas in 2014 she had won the world junior title in Oregon.

READ MORE: Athletics Integrity Unit reveals more than 100 athletes face doping disciplinary proceedings

Other recent announcements from the Athletics Integrity Unit include the provisional suspension against Ukrainian 800m runner Natalіia Krol (née Pryshchepa), after the 2016 and 2018 European champion tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, which is often used as a masking agent.