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Kenyan Brian Limo has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for breaking anti-doping rules.
On Thursday, November 27, the AIU announced that Limo tested positive for the prohibited substance salbutamol as well as tampering.
In 2025, the 22-year-old distance runner set at least eight new personal best times in the 1500m, Mile, 5000m, 5000m short track, 3000m, 10,000m and the half-marathon distance event. His highest World Athletics points performance race was in the 10,000m, clocking 28:04 at the Marienlyst Stadion in Drammen, Norway, on April 5th.
Salbutamol (albuterol) is a rapid-acting bronchodilator medication primarily used to relieve symptoms of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It not only works rapidly, but lasts four to six hours.
Salbutamol is known in the pro cycling community. Chris Froome tested positive, as have many other riders. It has also been used by swimmers, hockey players and Russian runners.
In 2008, fellow Kenyan Susan Chepkemei tested positive for salbutamol. The marathon runner received a one-year ban after testing positive for salbutamol in an out-of-competition test in 2007. Athletics Kenya accepted her plea of mitigating circumstances. She claimed that she had been administered the substance in a Nairobi hospital for pneumonia treatment and was also pregnant at the time, leading to a reduced ban from the standard two years.
The now 50-year-old won two bronze medals at the World Cross Country Championships in Portugal and France, ten years apart in 1990 and 2000. Chepkemei was a three-time silver medallist in the World Half Marathon Championships as well as picking up a bronze. Four times, she finished in second place in the Marathon Majors, three from New York and once in Berlin. She finished third in the London Marathon in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
She was a Commonwealth Games 10,000m silver medallist from Manchester in 2002. Her marathon personal best was 2:21:46 before super shoes.
Therefore, Chepkemei potentially displaced many athletes over her career, some of whom may have competed clean. Meanwhile, Limo will have at least two years to reflect on whether it was worth cheating and tampering.
