NAIROBI, Kenya, March 29 – The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has provisionally suspended Singapore Marathon champion Esther Macharia after she tested positive for the banned substance, testosterone.
Testosterone offers unfair advantage to athletes by boosting their muscle mass and strength, endurance levels and faster recovery from injuries.
Macharia timed 2:45:08 to win the Singapore Marathon in December last year, following on from her fourth-place finish at the Grandma’s Marathon in the United States in June.
Her suspension comes less than 48 hours after the 2015 Africa 10,000m champion Alice Aprot was slapped with a four-year ban for the use of the prohibited substance, Letrozole Metabolite Methanol.
The drug is commonly used by unscrupulous athletes intent on masking the presence of other banned substances in their bloodstream.
Apart from Macharia, also awaiting her fate is marathoner Purity Changwony who was dropped from the Kenyan team to the Commonwealth Games after testing positive for 19-norandrosterone and triamcinolone acetonide.
