Tiruye Mesfin has been suspended from competition for a period of three years for doping. Her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) showed anomalies in her blood profile consistant with doping.
The 23-year-old Ethiopian distance runner has consistently competed in the 2:18 to 2:20 range in the marathon and 1:06 to 1:09 range in the half marathon.
Her personal bests are 66:31 and 2:18:35 in the half marathon and marathon, respectively and over 10km on the road 31:23 from 2022.
Her Valencia Marathon performance is the 112th-fastest in history. Two years ago, Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich set the world record at 2:09:56 and was caught for having multiple times the allowable limit of a masking agent in her blood stream.
“There has been significant progress in the fight against doping in the marathon in the last six to seven years, but there is still a long way to go. There are some top-ranking athletes who engage in doping that is not easily detectable, and this case highlights the need to use
sophisticated methods and a high volume of tests to catch them. In this case, thanks to the Athlete Biological Passport, seventeen samples collected over almost three years enabled independent experts to identify a clear pattern that could not be explained by normal
physiology or a medical condition,” said the head of the AIU, Brett Clothier.
The AIU formally charged Mesfin with an ADRV on Aug. 10 2026 and imposed an immediate provisional suspension on her. She responded with a signed admission of guilt and accepted the consequences on Aug. 24 2026. In addition to her three-year ban, Mesfin’s results are disqualified on and since 25 June 2025 – the date the AIU Expert Panel determined as corresponding to the first evidence of her ADRV.
