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'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
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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
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