# Marathon runner Josh Griffiths banned for cocaine metabolite

> British athlete tested positive for benzoylecgonine after May's Belfast City Marathon and received a three-month ban.
- Title: Marathon runner Josh Griffiths banned for cocaine metabolite
- Summary: British athlete tested positive for benzoylecgonine after May's Belfast City Marathon and received a three-month ban.
- Keywords: josh griffiths, athletics, doping, world athletics, belfast city marathon, great britain, wales, BBC News
- Source: BBC News — https://bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/c8dx16rk2keyo
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: josh griffiths, athletics, doping, world athletics, belfast city marathon, great britain, wales, sports
## British marathoner banned for positive test
Josh Griffiths, thirty-three, was given a three-month ban by World Athletics' Athletics Integrity Unit after benzoylecgonine appeared in his system following May's Belfast City Marathon.
## Griffiths denied taking cocaine
Griffiths denied ever taking cocaine or any other social drug. He could not prove how cocaine entered his system, but the AIU accepted any ingestion was out of competition and unrelated to sport.
## Ban and results expunged
Griffiths' three-month ban ran from the hearing date of nineteen June twenty twenty-six. His race results from three May until the end of the ban were expunged. He accepted the anti-doping rule violation and sanction.
## Elite runner's rise and fall
Griffiths rose to prominence as the fastest Briton at the two thousand seventeen London Marathon, earning him a place in the GB squad for that year's World Championships.
## Key takeaway

Josh Griffiths, a Great Britain marathon runner, was banned for three months after testing positive for benzoylecgonine following the Belfast City Marathon.