On Thursday, the track and field world was left stunned after the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced their latest major doping bust. One of Ukraine’s top athletes, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, two-time world silver medallist in the triple jump and long jump, was handed a provisional suspension for the suspected use of the banned substance testosterone.
“The AIU has provisionally suspended Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (Ukraine) for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Testosterone),” the AIU wrote on X. As of Thursday, the jumper became the most recent addition to the AIU’s updated list of suspended athletes. She faces a potential ban of four years.
The three-time Olympian (Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024) won silver in the long jump at the 2019 world championships in Doha, Qatar, and again in triple jump at the 2023 championships in Budapest, Hungary. Her best finish at an Olympics was fifth place in Tokyo.
Bekh-Romanchuk has not competed since the Paris Olympics last August, where she placed 11th. According to NBC Sports, the 29-year-old was slated to jump at the Friday’s Doha Diamond League meeting; her name has since been removed from the entry list.
Kenya’s Nehemiah Kipyegon handed three-year ban
Also on Thursday, Kenyan road runner Nehemiah Kipyegon was banned for three years after the prohibited substance Trimetazidine, a metabolic modulator, was detected in his sample during an in-competition urine test in Nigeria on Feb. 15.
The 27-year-old was subject to a four-year ban, but because of his early acceptance of the ineligibility period, his sanction was reduced to three years. Kipyegon’s results since Feb. 15, which includes a 1:03:43 half-marathon performance and third-place finish from the Semi-Marathon du Massif Forestier in France in March, will be disqualified.
The athlete holds a personal best of 1:00:34 from the Copenhagen Half-Marathon in September and a 10K best of 28:34 from Les Foulées Monterelaises in France a month later. He won his debut at October’s Generali Munich Marathon in Germany in 2:10:02.
