In November, a freshman runner from New Orleans’ Tulane University took home All-American honours at the 2024 NCAA Cross-Country Championships when she was supposed to be barred from competition. According to LetsRun.com, Caroline Jeptanui of Kenya received a provisional suspension from the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) in September 2024 for not one, but two anti-doping rule violations–but still went on to race five times during the NCAA season.
Jeptanui received a letter from the ADAK dated Sept. 9, 2024, announcing a pending provisional suspension (set to commence on Sept. 28) following multiple anti-doping rules violations at the Kapsabet Half Marathon in March 2024. The runner allegedly “adamantly evaded, refused, and failed” to submit to a drug test and “further attempted to hide [her] identity in an effort to tamper with the sample collection exercise.” Each of these charges could result in a competition ban of up to four years.
Tulane University’s coaches were reportedly unaware of Jeptanui’s suspension; her name is not listed on ADAK’s list of provisionally-suspended athletes. Her case is now awaiting judgement before ADAK’s sports dispute tribunal.
Jeptanui was a member of Iten, Kenya’s running group Braveheart Runners; at 24, she was recruited to Tulane University via the recruiting platform Scholarbook Premier. The service also claimed to be unaware of the runner’s suspension.
Competing during the suspension
The 25-year-old had a successful cross-country season, setting a new 6K school record of 19:04, taking third at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals and winning the AAC Championships. She took 12th at the national championships, the second-best finish by a first-year athlete. Canadian distance stars Sadie Sigfstead of Villanova University and Rachel Forsyth of Michigan State finished less than two seconds behind Jeptanui, claiming 15th and 16th, respectively.
As of last Friday morning, Jeptanui was also entered in the mile, 3,000m and 5,000m at the weekend’s AAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, but did not compete.
