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Female long-distance global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been suspended for three years after the Kenyan confessed to 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 14 March.

Chepngetich's accomplishments which occurred before that test - such as her global best time of 2:09:56 in the Chicago event in October 2024 - will still stand.

The sports governing body had requested a 48-month ban but the runner's punishment was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

However, the integrity unit will continue to investigate proof from Chepngetich's phone which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been intentional" - including communications dating back to the year 2022.

"This matter regarding the failed test for the substance has been settled, but the unit will keep looking into the questionable evidence found on Chepngetich's device to determine if any other violations have occurred."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the AIU, Chepngetich, the first woman to complete a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, was unable to give an reason for the positive test.

While 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.

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

At a later interview on July 11, Chepngetich was presented with the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been ruled out by the authority.

The athlete altered her story on July 31, claiming that she had taken her domestic worker's medication - labeled as being the banned substance - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the athletics' doping rules, such "carelessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an increased four-year penalty applies".

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

The 36-month suspension commenced on April 19 - when Chepngetich agreed to a temporary ban - with the runner's results, awards, championships, participation and prize money from March 14 lost.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"While unfortunate 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 able to uncovering substance abuses performed by elite athletes in their races."