Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya ran the third fastest time for a woman in winning the Dubai Marathon on Friday.
Chepngetich crossed the line in 2 hours, 17 minutes, 8 seconds, beating the course record by more than two minutes.
Only Paula Radcliffe and Mary Keitany have run a women’s marathon quicker.
The news comes at the backdrop of bad news after the IAAF doubled the ban on Olympic Marathon champion Jemima Sumgong to eight years.
Sumgong was initially banned for four years by Kenya’s anti-doping agency (ADAK) in 2017 after testing positive for the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO)
The 34-year-old, who became the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic marathon gold at the Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, said she had been injected with EPO by an “impostor” during a doctors’ strike in Kenya.
That claim was rejected as “not authentic” by the disciplinary tribunal of international athletics’ governing body (IAAF).
In a ruling dated Jan. 17, the tribunal said there was also “compelling evidence” Sumgong had falsified her medical records and lied about her whereabouts after the positive test for EPO.
Her actions constituted a second anti-doping offence of “tampering with a doping control” and merited the imposition of a second four-year sanction, the tribunal, chaired by Michael Beloff QC, said in its ruling
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