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Female long-distance global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for three years after the Kenyan confessed to anti-doping rule violations.

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

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

The sports governing body had sought a 48-month ban but the runner's punishment was reduced to 36 months because she admitted to the infractions.

However, the integrity unit will continue to investigate evidence from Chepngetich's mobile device which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her positive test may have been intentional" - including communications dating back to the year 2022.

"The case concerning the positive test for the substance has been resolved, but the unit will keep looking into the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich's phone to ascertain if any further infractions have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the integrity body, the marathoner, the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10, was unable to give an explanation for the positive test.

Although the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, the athlete's sample showed an estimated concentration of 3,800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of HCTZ under the minimal reporting level were also found in a sample taken from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was presented with the aforementioned suspicious evidence acquired from her mobile. Meanwhile, contamination had also been ruled out by the authority.

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

The unit had "major doubts about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the sport's doping rules, such "carelessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month penalty is applicable".

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

The 36-month suspension started on 19 April - when Chepngetich agreed to a temporary ban - with the competitor's performances, awards, championships, participation and earnings from March 14 lost.

"No one is above the rules."

"Although unfortunate for those who put their trust in this athlete, this is how the process is designed to operate."

"Marathon organizers should be commended for collectively funding anti-doping efforts able to revealing substance abuses committed by elite athletes in their events."