World and Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir has been provisionally suspended after a positive doping test the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday.
The AIU said that Jepchirchir tested positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) at an out of competition test in her native Kenya before she won the Sydney Marathon on August 30.
Jepchirchir won Olympic gold at the 2021 Toyko Olympics and won the world title in Tokyo last year.
Her victory in Sydney was a fourth at the top tier World Marathon Majors, the others being London 2024, Boston 2022 and New York 2021.
Jepchirchir is the latest athlete under doping investigation from Kenya, which will be the first African country to host the world athletics championships 2029 in Nairobi.