🔗 Share this article

Female long-distance global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been banned for 36 months after the runner confessed to anti-doping rule violations.

The record holder was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

The athlete's achievements which occurred before that sample - including her global best time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in Chicago in 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a four-year ban but the 31-year-old punishment was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

Nonetheless, the AIU will keep examining evidence from Chepngetich's phone which it found suggest "strong grounds that her failed test may have been intentional" - featuring communications dating back to 2022.

"The case regarding the positive test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the AIU will keep looking into the suspicious material found on Chepngetich's device to ascertain if any other violations have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When interviewed in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the initial female to complete a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, could not provide an explanation for the positive test.

While the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, the athlete's test showed an estimated concentration of 3,800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of HCTZ under the minimal reporting level were also found in a test taken from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a subsequent meeting on 11 July, Chepngetich was shown the previously mentioned questionable proof obtained from her mobile. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been ruled out by the AIU.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, stating that she had taken her domestic worker's pills - marked as being HCTZ - after becoming ill two days before the positive test.

The AIU had "major doubts about the reliability 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 applied after Chepngetich admitted the anti-doping breaches inside the 20 days required.

The three-year ban started on 19 April - when Chepngetich accepted a temporary ban - with the competitor's results, honors, titles, participation and earnings from March 14 forfeited.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

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

"Marathon organizers should be praised for collectively funding anti-doping efforts capable of uncovering doping violations committed by elite athletes in their events."