Jeptoo is a three-time winner of the Boston Marathon and a two-time winner in Chicago. She is one of the most-well-known Kenyan athletes to fail a doping test.
Tests of the B sample were conducted between Wednesday and Friday at the World Anti-Doping Agency lab in Lausanne, Switzerland. The federation said in a statement that it would hold a hearing of Jeptoo’s case in early January.
David Okeyo and Jackson Tuwei, who are vice presidents of Athletics Kenya, said in November that Jeptoo’s A sample, taken in an out-of-competition test in Kenya on Sept. 25, showed traces of the blood booster EPO.
Jeptoo, 33, claimed her second straight title in Chicago on Oct. 12. She was set to be crowned winner of the World Marathon Majors series before it was revealed that she had failed a doping test.
Earlier Friday the head of Kenya’s athletics federation had said that the doping problem in his country was far less severe than in Russia or China.
Isaiah Kiplagat, the president of Athletics Kenya, said the federation has barred or suspended 32 athletes for doping in the past five years.
“If you compare that to athletes banned by other federations like Russia and China, we are nowhere,” he said.
Athletics Kenya has done all it could to “arrest” the doping problem, Kiplagat said.
Kiplagat’s comments came as the World Anti-Doping Agency investigates allegations of systematic doping in Russia. Germany’s ARD broadcasting network alleged a web of doping, corruption and cover-ups in Russian athletics that implicated government-backed agencies.
Kiplagat said a Kenyan government task force would formulate laws to punish anyone found guilty of supplying Kenyan athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.
In 2012, ARD reported that there was widespread doping among Kenya’s outstanding distance runners, saying EPO and other prohibited substances were easily available from pharmacies in its high-altitude training camps.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said in October that it would work with Kenya to set up a national antidoping agency.
