Another Kenyan marathoner, Deborah Sang, has been handed a five-year ban after testing positive for two performance-enhancing substances, testosterone and prednisolone.
The 26-year-old first tested positive for testosterone late in 2025. Later, she tested positive for prednisone and prednisolone. The latter from the April 6, Belgrade Marathon. She had also provided a sample in January at the Riyadh Marathon.
On March 25, 2026, the athlete returned, via the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), a signed admission of anti-doping rule violations and acceptance of consequences Form (dated March 24, 2026), confirming that she admitted the anti-doping rule violations and accepted the consequences specified in the notice of allegation.
Sang’s suspension comes one day after fellow Kenyan Rhonex Kipruto lost an appeal at the Court of Arbitration of Sports to overturn his suspension for ADR.
In the ruling, Kipruto was found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation, but his six-year ban was nonetheless reduced by one year, as was Sang’s.
Sang won the 2025 Belgrade Marathon in 2:26:51, which represents her personal best, and the course record. In 2025, Sang also ran the Lisbon Marathon in 2:29:49. In 2024, she finished the Mersin Marathon in Turkey in 2:30:29.
Her five-year suspension started on March 11, 2026.
Kenya has a major doping problem. Currently, approximately 140 Kenyan athletes are suspended for doping-related offences. It is estimated that between 400 and 500 Kenyan athletes have been suspended or implicated in doping-related issues dating back 10 years to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
