Boston Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo gets four-year ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport doubled Kenyan marathoner Rita Jeptoo’s two-year suspension to four years for EPO use, it announced on Wednesday.

The three-member court disqualified her returns dating back to April 17, 2014, a period which includes that year’s Boston Marathon where she set a course record and her win in the Chicago Marathon.

Athletics Kenya initially suspended Jeptoo for two years after a sample she gave in September 2014 was found to contain recombinant EPO. She initially filed an appeal of that decision with CAS but later withdrew it. The International Association of Athletics Federations appealed to CAS to extend the ban to four years.

Jeptoo, 35, was not represented by counsel in the July 7 hearing after her attorney withdrew and one provided pro bono by legal aid from the international Council of Arbitration for Sport resigned.

The CAS statement said Jeptoo participated by phone and Athletics Kenya did not participate

“In coming to its decision, the Panel found to its comfortable satisfaction that the athlete used rEPO over a period of time to enhance performance,” CAS said in its statement. “The undisputed source of the rEPO found in her sample of 25 September 2014 was an injection given to her by a doctor. The athlete provided various differing accounts of the circumstances leading up to the injection and also regarding her relationship with that doctor.”

CAS concluded that Jeptoo used rEPO as part of a plan based on her long relationship with the doctor, multiple visits to see him, that she hid those visits from her manager and coach and that her use of the drug was consistent with her competition calendar.

Jeptoo’s suspension was backdated to Oct. 30, 2014, the date she was provisionally suspended after her test came back positive.

She is disqualified from all results dating back to her 2014 Boston Marathon win and forfeits the title, medals, prize money and appearance money.