Abbott World Marathon Majors Statement on Jemima Sumgong (KEN)

The below statement can be attributed to Tim Hadzima, general manager, Abbott World Marathon Majors.

While we are distressed to learn of the reports of Jemima Sumgong’s positive drug test, if true, they indicate that we are gaining ground in our long-standing fight against doping.

The Abbott World Marathon Majors is committed to eradicating doping and we will continue to lead the way in introducing and campaigning for aggressive measures. 

To that end, we recently, in conjunction with the IAAF, built and funded one of the largest targeted testing pool of athletes, with an aim of requiring more than 150 individuals to submit to out-of-competition testing a minimum of six times a year.

As we understand it from reports, one of those out-of-competition tests resulted in Jemima Sumgong’s provisional positive results.  This demonstrates that, while there is more work to do, our efforts have served an important purpose.

Sumgong currently leads the standings for AbbottWMM Series X, which concludes at the April 17 Boston Marathon. Under AbbottWMM rules, any athlete who has been found guilty of any anti-doping rules enforced by the IAAF, WADA, National Federations or any of the individual AbbottWMM races is not eligible to win a AbbottWMM Series title.

Given our policies, until the conclusion of Jemima Sumgong’s case and any potential appeal process, we will not name a Series X women’s champion.  

In Boston, we will celebrate the hundreds of thousands of hard-working athletes who have crossed the finish lines of our six races in the past year.  As we honor their accomplishments, we also will award titles to the Series X winners of our inaugural wheelchair championship as well as name our men’s Series X Champion.