Skip to main content

'Marathon Runner Yoshida Gets One-Year Doping Ban'

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2013/05/24/more-sports/marathon-runner-yoshida-gets-one-year-doping-ban/#.UadN_xyRMYE

Thank you to reader Robert McKenzie for bringing this unfortunate article, which I missed while in Manchester last weekend, to my attention.  Very sad news of a positive EPO test by Kaori Yoshida (Puma RC) at last December's Honolulu Marathon.  As far as I am aware this is the first time an elite-level Japanese marathoner has had a positive test.  Anyone with knowledge of any previous Japanese positive tests please feel free to post factual details in the comments section.

 Yoshida won the 2006 Hokkaido Marathon, 2008 Casablanca Marathon and 2012 Gold Coast Marathon, setting her 2:29:45 PB at the 2010 Chicago Marathon.

 photo (c) 2010 Dr. Helmut Winter
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

yuza said…
What I am about to write may sound a bit harsh, so I apologise in advance.

Whether she was doping or not, I am not sure how she could be quite so stupid either way. If she was genuinely doping, then how did she get caught? This was not a random drug test and had nothing to do with the new biological passport that seems to have got Marta Domínguez into trouble.

Did she decide to inject EPO two to three days before the race? Why would she do that when she knows she will probably return a positive result, or did she not know she would be tested? Who knows?

If it was an innocent mistake then she is still stupid, because she is a professional endurance athlete and should check -or get her doctor to check - her prescription drugs for performance enhancing drugs.

I know it sounds harsh, but it does not look good.

Brett, do you actually know what kind of testing Japanese athletes are subject too? How often are they tested? What kind of tests they receive? I am now genuinely curious and will have to have a hunt around on the internet.

I think she made an an innocent mistake. I am basing this on her times and her lack of improvement over the years. To this day her fastest half marathon was ran back in 2001, so if she has been using EPO for all that time, it has not been working that well.

But still it does not look good.

May 31, 2013 at 6:20 PM
Anonymous said…
If she was truly anemic and under the doctor's therapy, the doctor would have most likely advised against running a marathon. It takes about a month for the effects of EPO to kick in. It's not a "one injection and you are transformed into a Kenyan" type of thing. I am not buying her doctor's excuse at all.
June 4, 2013 at 6:58 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Khishigsaikhan and Kuira Break Ageo City Half Marathon CRs (updated)

Stellar conditions and a solid fields meant times were going to be fast at the Ageo City Half Marathon , and in both the women's and men's races the front end took full advantage of the day. In the midst of the super-deep men's field Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , the top Mongolian in this summer's Budapest World Championships marathon and in last month's Hangzhou Asian Games marathon, ran steady and strong, splitting 33:29 at 10 km, 1:10:38 pace, before pushing the 2nd half. Khishigsaikhan crossed the finish line 1:10:32, 1:22 under the old course record, 3:35 ahead of 2nd-place Kana Kobayashi , and a massive 4:16 off the Mongolian women's national record. Khishigsaikhan is currently training in Japan and ran Ageo in prep for next month's Taipei City Marathon, where she was 3rd last year. The men's race went out hard, with Kenyan Brian Kipyegon (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), NR holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and the ambitious Rei Matsunaga (Hosei) leading the ...
1 comment
Read more

A Few Words on Chicago

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Chicago comes at a tough time for Japan's corporate leagues, just before the start of the fall ekiden season's regional qualifiers.  Although just about every team has more than enough people to fill their lineups for these relatively minor events, head coaches will usually not let their better athletes do an October marathon, whether because of the limited recovery time in the event that they decide a big gun has to run in a qualifier, or because it would give them the hassle of explaining to the parent corporation why a star is off doing his or her own thing instead of being there for the team.  As a result you typically only see Japanese runners at Chicago when they are looking to drop something big, as with Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota) this year, or, like the block of  Japanese men at 2:12~2:13 , as part of a corporate federation junket for promising third-tier men to get the exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tanaka and Hashioka Win Gold - World U20 Championships Day Two Japanese Results

Working together to execute an aggressive frontrunning team strategy born from failure two years ago in Bydgoszcz , 2018 Asian U20 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka and 2018 Asian Junior Cross Country gold medalist Yuna Wada opened a massive lead over the African Junior Cross Country medalist Ethiopian duo of Meselu Berhe and Tsige Gebreselama in the early going of the Tampere World U20 Championships women's 3000 m. Tanaka took the lead from the gun before Wada went out front at 200 m to set a fast pace. Through splits of 3:00 and 3:03 for the first 2000 m, Tanaka kicked hard from 300 m out to close with a 2:51 for Japan's first-ever gold medal in the event, winning in a PB of 8:54.01. Berhe and Gebreselama caught Wada on the back corner but weren't even close to matching Tanaka, taking 2nd and 3rd in PBs just under the 9-minute mark. Wada just held off Kenyan Jenali Jemutai Yego for 4th in 9:00.50, seeming happy in post-race interviews to have helped a teammate ...
Post a Comment
Read more