February 27, 2008
Susan Chepkemei has been suspended for 1 year
Susan Chepkemei of Kenya has been suspended for 1 year from international competition after salbutamol was found in an off-season drug test.
She was given the asthma medication during her pregnancy after contracting pneumonia, which is why the normal 2 year ban for a first time offense was reduced to one year. The ban became effective as of October 19, 2007.
(More Information: IAAF – Photo Credit: John McCullough)
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February 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Was she competing while still taking the drug? Or was it just lingering in her system? Seems like a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, although she could probably use the time to recover fully from pregnency and sickness.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:02 am
As far as I can tell, she got “caught” in a regular off-season random drug test. They only suspended her for a year because of the medical reasons and because she cooperated with providing all information about her use as supplied by the hospital.
Even out of season, the athletes aren’t allowed to use the banned substances. For example, Lance Armstrong has in fact used performance enhancing drugs, and he will be the first to admit it. Since those drugs were required to keep him alive while he was going through chemotherapy, he didn’t really have much of a choice. And since there weren’t a lot of Lance-haters at that point (well, not as many) they all missed out on their opportunity to get him suspended.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Seems very unfortunate, seeing as how the drugs were being used be a specific, medical treatment purpose. So what are your opinions of the IAAF’s decision?
March 1st, 2008 at 12:47 pm
It’s a banned substance and she didn’t get a waiver ahead of time, so I don’t see any problem with it. Technically, she could have been given a 2 year ban, so I think that 1 year is fair.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
OK, I see. That explains it. Apparently getting the waiver wasn’t the first thing on her mind.