Long-distance running Champion Ruth Chepngetich Given Three-Year Suspension

Women's marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for three years after the runner confessed to anti-doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in July following a positive test for a banned substance - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

Chepngetich's achievements which pre-date that sample - such as her world record time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in the Chicago event in 2024 - will still stand.

The sports governing body had requested a 48-month suspension but the 31-year-old penalty was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

However, the integrity unit will keep examining evidence from Chepngetich's phone which it found indicate "a reasonable suspicion that her failed test may have been deliberate" - including communications from as early as the year 2022.

"This matter concerning the failed test for HCTZ has been settled, but the unit will continue to investigate the suspicious material recovered from the runner's phone to determine if any further infractions have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When questioned in the fourth month by the integrity body, Chepngetich, the first woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

Although HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, the athlete's test showed an estimated concentration of 3800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of the diuretic below the detection threshold were also identified in a sample collected from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was presented with the aforementioned suspicious evidence obtained from her phone. In the meantime, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the authority.

Chepngetich altered her story on July 31, claiming that she had taken her housemaid's medication - labeled as being HCTZ - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The unit had "serious reservations about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the framework of the athletics' anti-doping rules, such "carelessness" is considered "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month sanction applies".

An standard 12-month decrease was granted after the runner admitted the doping rule violations within the 20 days required.

The three-year ban commenced on April 19 - when the athlete agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's performances, honors, titles, participation and prize money since 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is above the rules."

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

"Marathon organizers should be praised for jointly supporting doping prevention capable of uncovering substance abuses performed by top competitors in their races."