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It’s just another manic Monday (Ooh-oh)
Wish it were Sunday (Ooh-oh)
‘Cause that’s my fun day (Ooh-oh)
My, I-don’t-have-to-run day (Ooh)
It’s just another manic Monday
— The Bangles, Manic Monday.
On Monday, it was announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) that two more Kenyans were suspended from competing due to testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). It’s just another manic Monday.
Ronald Kimeli Kurgat and Charles Kipkirui Langat are named.
Well, the two have their own “My, I-don’t-have-to-run days,” now.
Kurgat will serve a six-year bannishment from the sport, while Langat is provisionally suspended.
Ronald Kimeli Kurgat
The former tested positive for the presence of triamcinolone acetonide at the Nairobi Marathon. The 39-year-old’s results are disqualified dating back to that particular race in October 2024. Months later, he again tested positive at the Danzhou Marathon in Danzhou, China. Both test results went to different. World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited labs, but they found the same substance: that pesky triamcinolone acetonide.
Hence the six-year ban.
Thirteen years ago (2012), Kurgat ran his personal best of 2:11:08 in Nairobi. In October, he finished the same race in a time of 2:13:05. Two minutes slower is not a red flag; perhaps he was doping in 2012.
Charles Kipkirui Langat
Langat was caught using testosterone. As per the protocol, he has an opportunity to appeal the charge to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The 29-year-old holds a half-marathon best of 58:53 and a 10km road best of 26:57, both from 2023.
While it does not seem impressive that his best run is tied for the 74th fastest all-time, he is faster than anyone outside of North East Africa, ever.
For example, 49 better performances are from fellow Kenyans. Six times a Ugandan has run faster, Jacob Kiplimo — the only Ugandan — who holds the world record at 56:42 from February in Barcelona 2025. Kiplimo holds the third, fifth, 10th, 16th and 68th fastest times, all under 58:50. Fifteen of those top performances are from Ethiopians, three are from Eritreans. That’s it.
East Africa
That means that from a landmass of approximately eight per cent of North America, all of the top 74 fastest performances exist. This is incorrect; it’s 163 of all the fastest performances. Great Britain has one entry, but from the former Somalian Mo Farah. His performance is accompanied by an asterisk, due to the course being downhill. He ran 59:22. Additionally, he was implicated when banned coach Alberto Salazar allegedly injected him with L-carnitine. Farah was also implicated to be working with coach Jama Aden, who was arrested after being serveilled for one month in Sabadelle, Spain. It is alleged that paraphernalia for drug use was found in his hotel room. Two of Aden’s athletes did test positive and were suspended the year before, in 2015.
So, Farah’s time is questionable at best.
Thirty of the 74 fastest half marathons have taken place in Valencia. The race has been in existence for just 34 years, since 1991.
Tied for the 163rd-fastest performance is Julien Wanders of Switzerland at 59:13. In 2019, he raced the Ras Al Khaymah event, the site of the second-most top 163 fastest times at 28.
Jacob Kiplimo is managed by the same agent who disgraced marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich is managed by, Frederico Rosa of Rosa Associati. Many of his athletes have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
The two Kenyans, Langat and Kipkurui, are not alone; it happens to the best of them. For example, Chepngetich and approximately 400 other Kenyans.
Over 90 per cent of the top 4000 performances in history are from North East Africa.
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