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

The record holder was provisionally suspended in July following a positive test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic often utilized as a masking agent - on 14 March.

Chepngetich's accomplishments which pre-date that test - such as her world record performance of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in the Chicago event in October 2024 - will remain valid.

The sports governing body had sought a 48-month ban but the 31-year-old penalty was reduced to three years because she confessed to the infractions.

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

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

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When interviewed in the fourth month by the AIU, the marathoner, the first woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, could not provide an reason for the failed test.

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

Small amounts of the diuretic under the detection threshold were also identified in a sample taken from the runner two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a later interview on July 11, the record holder was shown the aforementioned suspicious evidence obtained from her mobile. Meanwhile, contamination had also been ruled out by the authority.

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

The unit had "serious reservations about the credibility of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the athletics' doping rules, such "recklessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month penalty applies".

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

The 36-month suspension commenced on April 19 - when the athlete accepted a temporary ban - with the runner's results, honors, championships, appearance and prize money since 14 March forfeited.

"No one is above the rules."

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

"The road-running industry should be praised for collectively funding doping prevention able to uncovering doping violations performed by elite athletes in their events."