🔗 Share this article

Female long-distance world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for three years after the Kenyan confessed to doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a positive test for a banned substance - a prohibited substance used commonly as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

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

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year ban but the 31-year-old punishment was reduced to 36 months because she confessed to the infractions.

However, the integrity unit will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found indicate "a reasonable suspicion that her failed test may have been intentional" - featuring communications dating back to 2022.

"This matter concerning the failed test for HCTZ has been settled, but the unit will keep looking into the questionable evidence recovered from Chepngetich's device to ascertain if any other violations have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the integrity body, 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 HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of the diuretic below the detection threshold were also identified in a test taken from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, Chepngetich was presented with the aforementioned questionable proof acquired from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been disproven by the authority.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, stating that she had taken her housemaid's pills - labeled as being the banned substance - after falling sick two days before the failed test.

The AIU had "major doubts about the credibility of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the athletics' doping rules, such "recklessness" is deemed "indirect intent, for which an increased four-year sanction is applicable".

An standard 12-month decrease was granted after the runner confessed to the anti-doping breaches within the 20 days required.

The three-year ban started on 19 April - when the athlete agreed to a temporary ban - with the runner's performances, awards, championships, participation and prize money since March 14 lost.

"Nobody is above the rules."

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

"The road-running industry should be praised for collectively funding anti-doping efforts able to uncovering doping violations committed by elite athletes in their events."