Olympic champion Jebet in drug test quagmire- report

Olympic champion and world 3,000m steeplechase record holder Ruth Jebet has reportedly failed a drugs test.

British outlet, the Guardian Sunday claimed the Bahraini tested positive for banned blood-booster EPO although world governing body IAAF and the Athletics Integrity Unit have not confirmed the reports.

According to the report, Jebet’s agent, Marc Corstjens, said he had not heard any news of a positive test on the 21-year-old.

The startling news elicited sharp reactions on micro-blogging site Twitter with Emma Coburn, who finished third at the 2016 Rio Olympics sharing the link to the report and with a sarcastic ‘CLEANSPORT’ caption alongside it.

“The emotion that rolled through my veins when I read this. I’m not surprised but it just hurts my heart that this is what I’ve devoted so much of life to,” Briton Lennie Waite, who finished 17th in Heat 3 at the Summer Olympics, tweeted.

Kenyan-born Jebet who switched allegiances to Bahrain in 2013 took gold in the women’s 3,000m in 8:59:75 – at the time the second-fastest time in history.

While she was globally hailed as “Golden Ruth”, she was greeted with boos back in her homeland after she beat Kenya’s Hyvin Jepkemoi into second.

Jebet becomes the second high profile distance running champion from Rio 2016 to be linked with EPO use after Kenyan women marathon gold medallist, Jemimah Jelagat Sumgong, was banned for four years last year by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK).