Ethiopian marathon runner, Tsehay Gemechu, has been suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for an anti-doping rule violation.
The 25-year-old has a marathon personal best of 2:16:56 from the 2023 Tokyo Marathon where she finished in second place. She has twice run sub-1:06 in the half-marathon. She clocked a 1:05:08 and 1:05:01 at the 2021 Copenhagen and 2022 Larne, UK events, respectively. Gemechu won the 2018 and 2019 Delhi Half Marathon and finished fourth in the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships in the 5000m event.
Ethiopian marathoner Gemechu gets four-year doping ban
— Anti-Doping Database (@Dopinglist) October 31, 2024
Ethiopian marathon runner Tsehay Gemechu has been banned for four years over suspected blood doping.https://t.co/k2bzuFz3Qd
Three industry experts agreed with over four years of blood samples taken from Gemechu that the blood values demonstrate manipulation. Her Athlete Biological Passport indicates anomalies consistent with doping. World Athletics has provisionally suspended the athlete for a period of four years.
She was also disqualified from all results and prize money earned since March 2020, including the Tokyo race in March 2023. Her performance was the 24th fastest of all time.
Gemechu’s case is another in a long line of out-of-competition tests that indicate doping, whereas in-competition has not. Athletics Illustrated recently published an article questioning the performance of in-competition testing.
