🔗 Share this article

Female long-distance world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been suspended for three years after the Kenyan acknowledged anti-doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a positive test for a banned substance - a prohibited substance often utilized as a masking agent - on March 14.

Chepngetich's achievements which pre-date that test - including her world record performance of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in the Chicago event in 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year suspension but the runner's penalty was lowered to 36 months because she confessed to the violations.

However, the AIU will continue to investigate proof from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her failed test may have been intentional" - including communications from as early as the year 2022.

"This matter concerning the positive test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the unit will keep looking into the suspicious material recovered from the runner's device to ascertain if any further infractions have occurred."

'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, was unable to give an explanation for the positive test.

While the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, the athlete's sample showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Traces of HCTZ under the minimal reporting level were also found in a sample collected from the runner 14 days prior, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on 11 July, Chepngetich was presented with the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her mobile. In the meantime, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the AIU.

The athlete altered her story on July 31, 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 unit had "major doubts about the reliability of the revised account" and, in the framework of the sport's doping regulations, such "carelessness" is deemed "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month penalty applies".

An standard 12-month decrease was granted after Chepngetich confessed to the anti-doping breaches within the specified 20-day period.

The 36-month suspension commenced on April 19 - when Chepngetich agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's results, honors, championships, participation and prize money since March 14 lost.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"While disappointing for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the system is supposed to work."

"Marathon organizers should be commended for jointly supporting anti-doping efforts capable of uncovering doping violations performed by top competitors in their races."