Marathon Record Holder Ruth Chepngetich Handed Three-Year Suspension

Female long-distance global champion the athlete has been suspended for three years after the Kenyan acknowledged anti-doping rule violations.

The record holder was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a prohibited substance often utilized as a masking agent - on 14 March.

The athlete's achievements 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 31-year-old penalty was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

However, the AIU will continue to investigate evidence from the athlete's phone which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been intentional" - including communications dating back to the year 2022.

"The case regarding the positive test for the substance has been resolved, but the unit will continue to investigate the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich's phone to determine if any other violations have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When interviewed in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the first woman 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 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3,800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of HCTZ below the minimal reporting level 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 shown the previously mentioned questionable proof obtained from her mobile. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the AIU.

Chepngetich altered her story on July 31, stating that she had taken her domestic worker's pills - labeled as being HCTZ - after falling sick two days before the failed test.

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

An standard 12-month decrease was granted 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 results, awards, titles, appearance and prize money from 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

"While unfortunate for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the process is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be commended for collectively funding anti-doping efforts able to revealing substance abuses committed by elite athletes in their events."