Marathon Champion Ruth Chepngetich Given 36-month Suspension

Female long-distance world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been banned for 36 months after the Kenyan confessed to anti-doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a failed test for a banned substance - a prohibited substance often utilized as a masking agent - on 14 March.

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that sample - such as her global best time of 2:09:56 in the Chicago event in 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year suspension but the 31-year-old penalty was reduced to three years because she confessed to the violations.

However, the AIU will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her positive test may have been intentional" - featuring communications from as early as 2022.

"The case concerning the positive test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the AIU will continue to investigate the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich's device to determine if any further infractions have occurred."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When questioned in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the initial female to complete a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, was unable to give an explanation for the positive test.

While the substance has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of HCTZ under the minimal reporting level were also identified in a test collected from the runner two weeks earlier, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was shown the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her mobile. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been ruled out by the AIU.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, claiming that she had used her domestic worker's medication - marked as being the banned substance - after becoming ill 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The unit had "major doubts about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the context of the athletics' anti-doping regulations, such "carelessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an increased four-year penalty is applicable".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after Chepngetich confessed to the anti-doping breaches inside the specified 20-day period.

The three-year ban commenced on 19 April - when the athlete accepted a temporary ban - with the runner's results, honors, titles, participation and prize money since March 14 forfeited.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"Although disappointing for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the process is supposed to work."

"The road-running industry should be commended for jointly supporting doping prevention capable of uncovering substance abuses performed by top competitors in their events."