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Twenty-seven-year-old recreational runner Patricia Alvarez of Oviedo, Spain, was provisionally suspended in December 2025 for a doping-related offence. She can appeal the latest outcome, which is a two-year suspension after testing positive for the masking agent and diuretic furosemide. Meanwhile, a Kenyan former world record holder’s suspension and appeal of results are published by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Patricia Alvarez
Her urine sample was taken after the Azkoitia-Azpeitia Diego Garcia Memorial Half Marathon on March 29, where she finished third, making her eligible for the podium and prize money. She was issued a notice of charge on July 24.
Alvarez maintained throughout the proceedings that she unintentionally took one pill of furosemide mistakenly, thinking it was ibuprofen, an over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.
The results are DQ’d results from March 2024 to July 2025.
Rhonex Kipruto
Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport received an appeal from Kenyan Rhonex Kipruto on his six-year suspension.
The CAS has published the outcome and reduction of the suspension from six to five years.
All results from September 2, 2018, to May 11, 2023, are to be disqualified.
The Athletics Integrity Unit determined, based on the Athlete Biological Passport results, that Kipruto must have been blood doping on several occasions.
Kipruto held the world record for the 10km road race at 26:24, which he set in 2020 at the Valencia 10K. He ran what is now the ninth-fastest half-marathon all-time at 57:49 in Valencia, 11 months after his 10km record performance. The half-marathon made him the third-fastest man all-time, over the distance. He is now the sixth fastest.
In 2024, Kipruto was banned for six years for a “deliberate and sophisticated doping regime.” His race results since September 2018 have been disqualified, including the half-marathon performance. However, according to his World Athletics profile, the 10km world road record stands.
