The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has banned Kenyan marathoner Betty Lempus for five years for doing.
In a statement Thursday, January 26, AIU said the 31-year-old athlete used a prohibited substance – triamcinolone acetonide – which when administered via prohibited routes, falls under the banned category of glucocorticoids, commonly used as therapeutic substances in sports.
“The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has banned Betty Lempus for five years for the presence of a Prohibited Substance (Triamcinolone Acetonide) and for Tampering with any part of Doping Control by an Athlete which is a breach of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules,” the AIU said.
Their use is allowed if athletes can produce an exemption or proof that administration is not through a prohibited route.
Lempus, who smashed the Paris half-marathon course record at last year’s edition, had claimed the substance entered her system through a medical injection in August 2021 by Dr Philip Murey at the Uasin Gishu County Hospital in Eldoret.
But an investigation by the AIU, with the help of the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (“ADAK”), established she did not receive the injection and the hospital did not employ a Dr Philip Murey.
Lempus was tested after she won at the Harmonie Mutuelle Semi de Paris (Paris Half Marathon) in September 2021.
The AIU said as a consequence it had also disqualified her results from the day the test was conducted, meaning she has been stripped of her Paris title.
“The Athlete has accepted the above Consequences for her anti-doping rule violations and has expressly waived her right to have those Consequences determined by the Disciplinary Tribunal at a hearing,” the AIU said in a statement.
