ID: Marathon winner may be disqualified

Flomena Chepchirchir crosses the finishing line in Macau

The Macau Marathon organizers are considering disqualifying Flomena Chepchirchir, the female runner who won the 2014 race while being banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
As the Times reported first-­hand on Friday April 8, Chepchirchir, a 35-year-old athlete from Kenya, won the 2014 Macau International Marathon while she was banned for doping. The long-distance Kenyan female runner was in the middle of a ban period decreed by IAAF after testing positive for a controlled substance at the Birell Prague Grand Prix Marathon, Czech Republic, on September 6, 2014. According to IAAF News Issue 159, the athlete was banned from competing for a 6-month period between September 6, 2014 and March 3, 2015.
Replying to questions posed by the Times, the Sports Bureau (ID) said that it “discovered in January 2015 via news that Flomena Chepchirchir might have participated in the 2014 Macau International Marathon while serving a ban given by IAAF.”
“Since the discovery of the issue, the Organizing Committee had immediately written to IAAF to seek confirmation and further information on the issue. But to date IAAF, has yet to provide an official reply and provide us confirmation of Ms Chepchirchir’s case,” ID stated.
The bureau also says that besides seeking conformation from IAAF, they have also tried to contact Chepchirchir’s agent who suggested that the runner was intending to appeal the IAAF’s ban.
The bureau’s statement adds that “pending the outcome of the case, retrospective action would be taken to disqualify” the Kenyan athlete and “adjust the results of the runners who finished in subsequent positions accordingly.”
According to the ID, Flomena Chepchirchir was asked to perform an anti-doping test after the conclusion of the Macau Marathon. She tested negative.
ID stated that the local marathon organizing committee “takes the issue of anti-doping in sports very seriously and we have always had a standard procedure and performed thorough checks to ensure the participating athletes are eligible to take part in our competition,” highlighting that Chepchirchir’s case was “isolated.” However, it is stressed that the case shows “there are still improvements to be made to our checking procedure, and in the future, we intend to seek more proactive communications and collaboration with international federations […] in order to prevent similar issues from happening in the future.”

sports bureau reply to the times

“The Organizing Committee discovered in January 2015 via news that Ms. Flomena Chepchirchir might have participated in the 2014 Macau International Marathon while serving a ban given by IAAF for the effective period from 6 September 2014 to 5 March 2015.  Since the discovery of the issue, the Organizing Committee has immediately written to IAAF to seek confirmation and further information on the issue, but to date IAAF has yet to provide us an official reply and provide us confirmation of Ms. Chepchirchir’s case. We have also been in touch with the representing agent of Ms. Chepchirchir to seek clarification of the situation, and we were advised that they were intending to appeal to IAAF against the ban.
Pending on the outcome of the case, retrospective action would be taken to disqualify Ms. Chepchirchir’s result in the 2014 Macao International Marathon and adjust the results of the runners finished in subsequent positions accordingly if it is confirmed that Ms. Chepchirchir should have been banned from running in the 2014 Macau International Marathon.
Elite runners from all over the world have participated in the Macao International Marathon.  For all invited athletes who participate in the Macau International Marathon, including Ms. Chepchirchir in 2014, the Organizing Committee perform a standard and thorough procedure to check if any of the athletes are serving bans imposed by IAAF before they are allowed to run in the race.  At the time of the 2014 Macau International Marathon, there was no information from IAAF that Ms. Chepchirchir was ineligible to run in competitions hence her registration for the event was approved.
After the conclusion of the event, an anti-doping test was also performed on Ms. Chepchirchir and the result was negative.  As Ms. Chepchirchir’s case only came to light in January 2015, the Organizing Committee could not have prevented her participation in the 2014 Macau International Marathon.
Taking this opportunity, we would like to emphasize the Organizing Committee takes the issue of anti-doping in sports very seriously and we have always had a standard procedure and performed thorough checks to ensure the participating athletes are eligible to take part in our competition. However, Ms. Chepchirchir’s isolated case highlighted that there are still improvements to be made to our checking procedure, and in the future we intend to seek more proactive communications and collaboration with international federations such as IAAF to ensure all participants in the major sporting events are eligible to take part so that we can prevent similar issues from happening in the future.”