Athletics global governing body is to launch a doping crackdown on elite marathon runners after scandals involving top Kenyan and Russian stars.

Organizers of the top races in London, New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and Berlin have agreed to finance extra testing of top runners by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The finance from World Marathon Majors means that the top 150 runners will face tougher testing after races and out of competition.

Failed tests by Russia's Liliya Shobukhova, who was the second fastest women in history, and Kenya's Rita Jeptoo, three time winner of the Boston marathon, sullied the name of one of the original Olympic disciplines.

Jeptoo — who in the past two years has achieved the Chicago/Boston double — was one of 35 Kenyan athletes suspended over the past two years for taking banned drugs.

The WMM "offered their contribution to our program," said Thomas Capdevielle, the IAAF's anti-doping manager, announcing the clampdown.

He said it "basically means systematic ABP (athletes biological passport) testing at the races on all the elite field, as we have been doing for the past two years, but also urine tests out of competition."

Capdevielle called it a "priority project" that would analyze blood tests on Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Ugandan athletes.

Shobukhova was banned for two years in April 2014 over suspicious blood values in her biological passport. Her three wins at the Chicago marathon and one at the London race were annulled.

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