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

Chepngetich was temporarily banned in July following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic often utilized as a masking agent - on March 14.

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

The sports governing body had requested a 48-month suspension but the runner's punishment was reduced to 36 months because she confessed to the violations.

However, the AIU will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her failed test may have been intentional" - including communications from as early as the year 2022.

"The case concerning the positive test for HCTZ has been settled, but the AIU will continue to investigate the questionable evidence recovered from the runner's phone to determine if any further infractions 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 under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

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

Small amounts of the diuretic below the minimal reporting level were also identified in a sample collected from the runner 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 mobile. In the meantime, accidental exposure had also been ruled out by the authority.

Chepngetich altered her story on July 31, stating that she had used her domestic worker's pills - marked as being the banned substance - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The unit had "major doubts about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the context of the athletics' anti-doping regulations, such "recklessness" is considered "indirect intent, for which an increased four-year sanction applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was granted after Chepngetich confessed to the doping breaches inside the specified 20-day period.

The 36-month suspension started on April 19 - when Chepngetich agreed to a temporary ban - with the competitor's results, honors, titles, appearance and prize money from 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is above the rules."

"Although disappointing for those who had faith in this runner, this is how the system is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be praised for collectively funding doping prevention capable of revealing substance abuses performed by elite athletes in their events."