🔗 Share this article

Women's marathon global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for 36 months after the runner admitted to doping rule violations.

The record holder was provisionally suspended in July following a positive test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic used commonly as a masking agent - on March 14.

Chepngetich's achievements which pre-date that test - including her global best performance of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in Chicago in 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a 48-month ban but the runner's punishment was reduced to 36 months because she confessed to the infractions.

Nonetheless, the integrity unit will continue to investigate evidence from the athlete's phone which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her failed test may have been deliberate" - including messages dating back to the year 2022.

"The case concerning the positive test for the substance has been settled, but the AIU will keep looking into the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich's device to determine if any further infractions have occurred."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in the fourth month by the AIU, Chepngetich, the initial female to run a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

While HCTZ has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in urine, the athlete's test showed an estimated concentration of 3800 ng/mL.

Traces of HCTZ under the detection threshold were also identified in a test collected from Chepngetich 14 days prior, on February 28.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was presented with the previously mentioned suspicious evidence obtained from her mobile. In the meantime, contamination had also been disproven by the authority.

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

The AIU had "serious reservations about the reliability of the revised account" and, in the context of the sport's anti-doping rules, such "recklessness" is considered "indirect intent, for which an increased four-year sanction applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after Chepngetich admitted the anti-doping rule violations inside the specified 20-day period.

The three-year ban started on April 19 - when the athlete agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the competitor's performances, honors, championships, participation and earnings from 14 March lost.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

"While disappointing for those who put their trust in this athlete, this is how the system is designed to operate."

"Marathon organizers should be praised for jointly supporting anti-doping efforts able to revealing substance abuses committed by top competitors in their events."