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Female long-distance global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for 36 months after the Kenyan confessed to doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in July following a failed test for a banned substance - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on March 14.

The athlete's achievements which pre-date that test - such as her global best performance of 2:09:56 in Chicago in October 2024 - will still stand.

The sports governing body had sought a four-year suspension but the runner's penalty was lowered to 36 months because she confessed to the violations.

However, the AIU will continue to investigate evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found indicate "strong grounds that her failed test may have been intentional" - including messages dating back to 2022.

"This matter regarding the failed test for the substance has been settled, but the AIU will keep looking into the suspicious material found on the runner's phone to ascertain if any further infractions have occurred."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When questioned in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the first woman to complete a marathon in under 2:10, was unable to give an explanation for the failed test.

Although HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 ng/mL in samples, the athlete's sample showed an estimated concentration of 3,800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic below the detection threshold were also found in a sample collected from the runner 14 days prior, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was presented with the previously mentioned suspicious evidence obtained from her phone. Meanwhile, contamination had also been ruled out by the AIU.

Chepngetich changed her explanation on July 31, claiming that she had taken her domestic worker's medication - marked as being the banned substance - after becoming ill two days before the failed test.

The AIU had "major doubts about the reliability of the revised account" and, in the context of the athletics' doping rules, such "carelessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an increased four-year sanction applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after Chepngetich admitted the doping rule violations inside the 20 days required.

The three-year ban started on 19 April - when Chepngetich agreed to a temporary ban - with the runner's results, honors, championships, participation and prize money from March 14 lost.

"Nobody is above the rules."

"Although disappointing for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the system is designed to operate."

"Marathon organizers should be commended for collectively funding doping prevention capable of revealing substance abuses performed by elite athletes in their races."