India currently has the most suspended athletes of any country in the world. Kenya has the second most suspended athletes. So, it is appropriate that the latest two athletes to test positive for banned substances are from those two countries.

Tuesday, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended Kenyan Faith Chepchirchir Kiprotich and Indian Archana Laxman Jadhav.

Jadhav tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug oxandrolone. Meanwhile, Kiprotich tested positive for Norandrosterone. Norandrosterone is a metabolite of nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. Similarly, oxandrolone is a class of drugs called androgenic hormones. It increases the amount of protein made by the body. This protein is used to build more muscle and increase body weight.

Faith Chepchirchir Kiprotich

Kiprotich has a half-marathon personal best of 1:10:33, which she ran when she won the Lisbon Half Marathon in October. Her 10km best is 31:04. The 23-year-old was informed on Wednesday, January 8.

“The AIU has provisionally suspended Faith Chepchirchir Kiprotich (Kenya) for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Norandrosterone),” the AIU published on X. 

She will now need to respond to the charges by either admitting to the violations and providing explanations or denying the allegations and requesting further investigations. The AIU has reduced suspension when athletes cooperate and admit fault. Typically a full suspension is for four years.

Archana Laxman Jadhav

The 20-year-old Jadhav had last competed in the Delhi half marathon in October 2024 finishing fourth with a time of 1:20:21 behind winner Lili Das, Kavita Yadav and Priti Lamba.

“The AIU has provisionally suspended Archana Laxman Jadhav for Presence or use of the prohibited substance,” AIU posted the suspension on X on Tuesday night but did not provide the details of the failed test. Archana has a personal best of 35:44.26 in 10,000m, and 10:28:82 in the 3,000m.

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