🔗 Share this article

Women's marathon global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been suspended for 36 months after the Kenyan acknowledged anti-doping rule violations.

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

The athlete's accomplishments which occurred before that test - such as her global best performance of 2:09:56 in Chicago in October 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year suspension but the runner's punishment was lowered to three years because she confessed to the infractions.

However, the AIU will keep examining evidence from Chepngetich's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been deliberate" - featuring messages from as early as 2022.

"This matter regarding the failed test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the unit will continue to investigate the suspicious material found on the runner's phone to ascertain if any further infractions have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When questioned 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 reason for the failed test.

Although the substance has a minimum reporting level of 20 ng/mL in samples, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3,800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of the diuretic below the minimal reporting level were also found in a test taken from the runner two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, Chepngetich was shown the aforementioned suspicious evidence acquired from her mobile. In the meantime, accidental exposure had also been ruled out by the authority.

The athlete changed her explanation on 31 July, claiming that she had taken her housemaid's medication - labeled as being the banned substance - after becoming ill 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the reliability of the revised account" and, in the framework of the athletics' doping regulations, such "recklessness" is considered "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month penalty is applicable".

An automatic one-year reduction was granted after the runner admitted the doping breaches inside the 20 days required.

The 36-month suspension started on April 19 - when the athlete accepted a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's performances, awards, titles, participation and earnings from March 14 forfeited.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

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

"The road-running industry should be commended for jointly supporting doping prevention able to revealing substance abuses committed by top competitors in their events."