Kenya’s Joyline Chepngeno has obtained a doping ban after her win of the 2025 Sierre-Zinal, the place an in-competition check revealed the presence of the banned substance Triamcinolone Acetonide. Kenya’s Caroline Kimutai, who completed in second place, has been declared the winner.
Chepngeno obtained a two-year ban, which went into impact on September 8, 2025, and all of her outcomes from August 9 ahead are nullified. This consists of her 2025 Sierre-Zinal win and her 2025 OCC win lower than two weeks in the past. Sierre-Zinal was a part of each the World Mountain Operating Affiliation World Cup and the Golden Path World Collection, and OCC was the UTMB World Collection Closing for the 50k distance.
Joyline Chepngeno profitable the 2025 Sierre-Zinal. On September 9, 2025, she obtained a doping sanction for failing an in-competition check and her consequence was nullified. Picture: World Mountain Operating Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
An announcement from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which was began in 2017 by the Worldwide Affiliation of Athletics Federations to fight doping, issued on Tuesday, September 9, reads:
“On the idea that the Athlete has admitted the Anti-Doping Rule Violations beneath Rule 2.1 ADR and Rule 2.2 ADR, in accordance with Rule 10.2.1 ADR, the AIU confirms by this determination the next Penalties for a primary Anti-Doping Rule Violation:
15.1. a interval of Ineligibility of two (2) years commencing on 8 September 2025; and
15.2. disqualification of the Athlete’s outcomes on and since 9 August 2025, with all ensuing penalties, together with the forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, factors, prizes and look cash.”
Chepngeno’s major sponsor, Salomon, instantly introduced that she was dropped from its roster.
Chepngeno had a breakout win on the 2024 Sierre-Zinal, storming to victory forward of Scout Adkin (U.Okay.) and Mădălina Florea (Romania). She additionally gained the 2025 Marathon du Mont-Blanc. The Kenyan appeared unstoppable, repeating her Sierre-Zinal victory this 12 months after which having a robust battle with Miao Yao (China) earlier than profitable the 2025 OCC on the finish of August.
Caroline Kimutai Declared 2025 Sierre-Zinal Ladies’s Champion, Ladies’s Podium Up to date
Following this announcement, the Sierre-Zinal race group introduced in its personal press launch that Chepngeno is formally disqualified from the race and named Caroline Kimutai the winner of the 2025 Sierre-Zinal. This additionally shifts American Katie Schide into second and Maude Mathys (Switzerland) into third.
[In 2015, Maude Mathys received a warning without suspension from the Disciplinary Chamber for Doping Cases of Swiss Olympic for two positive tests for clomifene (previously clomiphene) after it was determined that she was mistakenly taking the drug without first obtaining a World Anti-Doping Agency Therapeutic Use Exemption.]
Caroline Kimutai of Kenya is the brand new 2025 Sierre-Zinal girls’s champion. Picture: World Mountain Operating Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
Particulars on Joyline Chepngeno’s Doping Sanction
In line with that press launch on September 9 by the Athletics Integrity Unit, Chepngeno submitted an in-competition urine pattern after her win on the 2025 Sierre-Zinal that examined constructive for Triamcinolone Acetonide, an artificial corticosteroid used as a painkiller that may be a Prohibited Substance beneath the World Anti-Doping Company. It’s prohibited to be used in competitors with out a Therapeutic Use Exemption.
After being notified of the constructive check on September 8, Chepngeno stated that she’d obtained an injection in her knee to assist with ache in July 2025, however didn’t notice it was a banned substance. She apologized for the error and despatched in an Admission of Anti-Doping Rule Violations and Acceptance of Penalties Type to the AIU.
The interval of ineligibility for the violation is 2 years and began on September 8. Chepngeno must return all prize cash and awards that she accrued since that date, together with the two,000 CHF prize purse from Sierre-Zinal.
Chepngeno’s coach, Julien Lyon, has additionally obtained a sanction from Sierre-Zinal, as is defined in that September 9 press launch from the race group. That is the second time in three years that Lyon, who heads up the Milimani Runners Kenyan path operating staff, has been concerned with a doping case at Sierre-Zinal. In 2022, Kenyan runner Mark Kangogo, who was additionally coached by Lyon, was issued a two-year ban after testing constructive for Norandrosterone, an androgen and anabolic steroid, and Triamcinolone Acetonide, the identical artificial corticosteroid that Chepngeno was simply sanctioned for. Kangogo’s two-year ban was decreased to at least one 12 months after an early admission of the violation. Lyon and any runners related to the Milimani Runners program have been banned from future editions of Sierre-Zinal.
Sadly, that is one other constructive doping check by a Kenyan endurance runner. In 2024, Kenya had extra doping sanctions than another nation, forward of India and Russia, pointing to what many specialists are calling a systemic doping difficulty in Kenyan operating.
Joyline Chepngeno profitable the 2024 Sierre-Zinal. Picture: World Mountain Operating Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
