MONACO — Tsehay Gemechu, a former runner-up in the Tokyo Marathon, has received a four-year suspension due to allegations of blood doping, as announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit on Thursday.

The 25-year-old Ethiopian athlete has been disqualified from all her competitive results and any prize money accrued since March 2020, including her notable second-place finish in the elite Tokyo race held in March 2023. Her impressive time of just under 2 hours and 17 minutes secured her the 24th spot on the all-time women’s marathon leaderboard.

In addition to her Tokyo successes, Gemechu previously finished fourth in the 5,000 meters at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and participated in the 10,000 meters event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. However, she faced disqualification in the Olympic race due to a lane violation. Furthermore, she did not complete the marathon at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

The Athletics Integrity Unit reported that Gemechu’s athlete biological passport displayed blood values that were deemed suspicious. This system is designed to detect potential doping over extended periods, even in the absence of direct positive test results. Over a span of five years, she provided 50 blood samples, with those collected in March 2020 and April and May 2022 showing signs of blood manipulation, according to a ruling from an independent doping tribunal.

As a result of these findings, Gemechu’s ban will remain in effect until November 2027.