Doping cases have long cast a shadow over track and field. But Kenya’s anti-doping agency is making it clear that there will be no more easy second chances. Where being suspended once is a big hit to one’s reputation, there are athletes who are now being suspended twice. And this latest update on an athlete has shaken the entire athletic world.

As reported by Citius Mag on X, the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has provisionally suspended 45-year-old Rita Jeptoo because of the presence of prohibited substance/s S1.1 Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS). The action is dated to December 16, 2025.

Jeptoo is on a list of 25 other athletes who are now provisionally suspended by Anti-Doping Kenya for doping violations. But for Jeptoo, this could be particularly troubling since this is her second suspension after just being back on the track 3 years ago. The backstory?

Jeptoo, the Boston and Chicago Marathon champion in 2013 and 2014, was first banned for four years in 2014, when a sample provided in September during her training for the Chicago race tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO), a red-blood-cell-boosting hormone.

Initially handed a two-year ban by Athletics Kenya, the case was appealed to the CAS. In October 2016, CAS delivered a judgment doubling the suspension to four years and disqualifying all her results from April 17, 2014. That’s because the panel found “aggravating circumstances.”

After her suspension expired in October 2018, Jeptoo returned to competition quietly, far from the major marquee events. She participated in races in 2022 and, at the age of 43, won the Zaragoza Marathon in Spain in April 2024, finishing in 2:38:12.

But now once again, she’s under the radar. And here’s what might happen this time.

As of now, Jeptoo has not issued any public statement regarding the provisional suspension. But the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya has confirmed she will remain suspended pending a hearing, although no date has been set for it yet.

This case adds another chapter to Kenya’s ongoing struggle with doping, a nation that has seen more than 140 athletes suspended since 2017.

However, there have been many similar instances in the sport of track and field.

A common sight in track and field

The pattern of athletes returning from doping bans only to be sanctioned again is a recurring and troubling narrative in track and field. And it is not only confined to Kenyan athletes. This issue involves athletes from all over the globe.

Indian sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar serves as a recent example, having been handed an eight-year ban by the National Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for the anabolic steroid drostanolone in 2025, just weeks after returning from a previous suspension for metandienone.

The 27-year-old had shown promising form upon her comeback, clocking 11.36 seconds in the 100m at the National Inter-State Championships, the fastest time by an Indian woman in four years, before her second positive test triggered stricter sanctions under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

Spanish hurdler Josephine Onyia received a two-year ban in 2011 for methylhexanamine. This came after having previously completed a suspension for a double positive for clenbuterol and the same stimulant.

Such cases show that second offenses carry severe punishments ranging from longer bans to lifetime suspensions.