Shetaye Gemechu, a marathoner who competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, has been banned from competition for two years after she tested positive on doping charges. Shetaye denied the charges that were made after her first-place win at a race in Luxembourg last year.
Nigusu interviewed Dube Jilo of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation about the organizations’s announcement of the two-year ban in addition to penalties imposed by the IAAF. Shetaye tested positive for the use of erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates red blood cell production and enhances athletic performance.
She is the first Ethiopian runner to test positive for the use of erythropoietin but in the past six years two other Ethiopian runners have been given two-year bans for doping with morphine.
