Long-distance running Record Holder Chepngetich Receives Three-Year Ban

Female long-distance world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for 36 months after the runner confessed to doping infractions.

The record holder was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a positive test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a prohibited substance used commonly as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that test - including her global best time of 2:09:56 in the Chicago event in 2024 - will remain valid.

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

Nonetheless, the AIU will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her failed test may have been intentional" - featuring communications from as early as 2022.

"The case regarding the failed test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the AIU will keep looking into the questionable evidence recovered from the runner's phone to determine if any other violations have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the AIU, Chepngetich, the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the positive test.

Although the substance has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, Chepngetich's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic under the minimal reporting level were also identified in a test taken from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a subsequent meeting on 11 July, the record holder was presented with the previously mentioned questionable proof acquired from her mobile. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the authority.

The athlete altered her story on 31 July, stating that she had used her housemaid's pills - labeled as being the banned substance - after becoming ill 48 hours prior to the failed test.

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

An standard 12-month decrease was granted after Chepngetich confessed to the anti-doping rule violations within the 20 days required.

The 36-month suspension started on 19 April - when the athlete accepted a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's results, honors, titles, participation and prize money since March 14 forfeited.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"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 commended for jointly supporting doping prevention able to uncovering substance abuses performed by top competitors in their races."