Twenty-four-year-old Ugandan athlete, Belinda Chemutai, has been suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit for three years.
In October 2024, Chemutai provided a urine sample at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia. Later that month, her tests came back negative for performance-enhancing drugs. In March, the AIU decided to split the B sample. The AIU notified Chemutai and invited her to witness the spitting of the B sample to B1 and B2.
She wrote back that she was okay with the B sample being split in her absence.
On April 10, 2025, the World Anti-Doping Agency (“WADA”) accredited laboratory in Paris reported an Adverse Analytical Finding in the B1 Sample for the presence of Testosterone and its Metabolites 5α-androstane-3α,17 diol (“5αAdiol”) and 5βandrostane-3α,17 diol (“5βAdiol”).
When notified, Chemutai admitted fault, therefore, she received a three-year suspension, rather than the standard four years for a first-time anti-doping rule violation.
Chemutai has raced over a range of distances, likely seeking to find where her strengths are. It appears that she is more of a distance runner, or perhaps the PEDs she took allowed her to run well over longer distances.
Her personal bests over 800 and 1500 metres are 2:05.24 and 4:12.89, while her 10K and half-marathon best performances are 31:03 and 1:10:40, respectively. In December in Barcelona, she ran a 14:36 road 5K, which is a small outlier for her.
Uganda is on the rise in the athletics world as a few athletes from the African nation have set world records. For example, Joshua Cheptegei currently holds the 5000m and 10,000m world records. Meanwhile, Jacob Kiplimo currently holds the world record in the half-marathon at 56:42.
Like Kenya and Ethiopia, a focus for testing should soon be on athletes from that country.
