Boston Marathon : The marathon winner who is still awaiting $100,000 in prize money

Buzunesh Deba is an Ethiopian track and field athlete who finished in second place during the 2014 Boston Marathons. However, a turn of events changed her fate, as she was adjudged the winner of the event a couple of years later.

Rita Jeptoo, the original winner of the event from Boston Marathon in 2014 was disqualified from the race after the Court of Arbitration for Sport's investigation found out that Jeptoo had started doping a couple of weeks earlier in the Boston event. She was held guilty of using a banned substance EPO which allows the body for greater oxygen transportation.

Owing to this, Jeptoo was stripped of her winning title and prize in 2016 which promoted Buzunesh Deba to the penultimate position at the event. However, Deba, even 10 years after the event, is yet to receive the prize money as Jeptoo has allegedly still not returned the amount to the Boston Athletics Association.

The sum includes the remaining $75,000 for the difference between the first and second positions and a bonus of $25,000 for breaking the women's record (2:19:59) at the event.

Deba and her husband Worku Beyi have repeatedly asked the organizers of the event for their winning amount to be reimbursed but are yet to recieve further clarity on the situation.

“As the matter is still ongoing, we are unable to comment further at this time," one of the officials of the organization told the Wall Street Journal.

More you need to know about the 2014 Boston Marathon winner Buzunesh Deba

Buzunesh Deba(third from left)

Buzunesh Deba was born on September 8, 1987, in Aselle, Ethiopia. Trained in New York City, Deba has a prominent track record in the New York City Marathons. She finished as the runner-up of the event twice in her career, in 2011 and 2013. In the 2011 event, she missed out on the first position by four seconds.

Deba's record run in the 2014 Boston Marathons made her the fastest women's runner in New York by more than 10 minutes. Besides her performance at the controversial 2014 Boston Marathons, she also clinched the bronze medal at the event in the subsequent year. with a run time of 2:35:09.

However, the consequences of the Boston Marathon 2014 have left the Ethiopian runner disappointed as she is forced to miss out on a huge amount which currently amounts to over 5 million in Ethiopian birr.