Long-distance running Champion Ruth Chepngetich Receives 36-month Suspension

Women's marathon global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been banned for three years after the Kenyan confessed to doping infractions.

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

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that test - including her world record time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in the Chicago event in October 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year ban but the runner's penalty was reduced to three years because she admitted to the violations.

Nonetheless, the AIU will keep examining proof from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been intentional" - including messages dating back to 2022.

"The case concerning the positive test for the substance has been settled, but the unit will continue to investigate the suspicious material found on Chepngetich's device to ascertain if any other violations have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

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

Although the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in urine, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3,800 ng/mL.

Traces of HCTZ under the minimal reporting level were also found in a sample collected from the runner two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a later interview on 11 July, the record holder was shown the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her phone. In the meantime, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the authority.

Chepngetich changed her explanation on 31 July, stating that she had used her housemaid's pills - labeled as being HCTZ - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the framework of the sport's anti-doping rules, such "carelessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month sanction applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after Chepngetich admitted the doping breaches within the specified 20-day period.

The 36-month suspension started on April 19 - when the athlete agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's results, awards, titles, participation and prize money from March 14 lost.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"While disappointing for those who had faith in this runner, this is how the process is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be commended for collectively funding doping prevention able to revealing substance abuses performed by elite athletes in their races."