U.S. anti-doping authorities have banned the Ethiopian winner of the 2016 Houston Marathon for 18 months after he tested positive for steroids.<\/p>\n
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced its decision to ban Gebo Burka this week, AFP reported.<\/p>\n
The Ethiopian long distance runner reportedly tested positive for prednisone<\/a>, a banned synthetic hormone that reduces inflammation.<\/p>\n According to the USADA, Burka’s sample, which was collected on January 17th during the Houston Marathon, tested positive for prednisone.<\/p>\n “Prednisone is a substance in the class of Glucocorticoids and is prohibited in competition,” a\u00a0 USADA statement read.<\/p>\n Burka, whose ban is scheduled to end in August 2017, said he had been taking prednisone in small doses after a doctor’s prescription. However, he did not disclose its usage to officials before the Houston Marathon.<\/p>\n As a result of the ban, Burka would have to relinquish his 2016 Houston Marathon title and other victories which came after January 17th.<\/p>\n Burka’s suspension comes amid an anti-doping campaign that has affected Russia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.<\/p>\n The World Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has reportedly been investigating Ethiopian Athletics after a tip from a whistleblower.<\/p>\n In March, Ethiopia Athletics came under fire after several athletes failed doping tests<\/a>.<\/p>\n In June, Spanish anti-doping authorities arrested the coach of Ethiopia’s 1500m world champion Genzebe Dibaba after a long-running investigation.<\/p>\n Jama Aden<\/a>, a Somali national, was arrested after Spanish authorities raided his hotel room in Catalonia.<\/p>\n EPO, a blood-boosting drug, and other unidentified medicines were reportedly found in two rooms in the hotel where Aden resided and trained over 20 athletes, including Dibaba.<\/p>\n The 53-year-old coach, who has vehemently denied doping his athletes, has a history of grooming middle-distance athletes.<\/p>\n [Photo by Delly Carr\/IAAF]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. anti-doping authorities have banned the Ethiopian winner of the 2016 Houston Marathon for 18 months after he tested positive for steroids. The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced its decision to ban Gebo Burka this week, AFP reported. The…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":10619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,46,1],"tags":[4900,4873,4967,4901],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gebo-Burka-Ethiopian-Winner-of-2016-Houston-Marathon-Banned-for-Doping.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10620,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions\/10620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}