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

Chepngetich was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic used commonly as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

Chepngetich's achievements which pre-date that sample - including her global best performance of 2:09:56 in Chicago in 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a four-year suspension but the runner's penalty was lowered to 36 months because she admitted to the infractions.

However, the AIU will continue to investigate evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been deliberate" - including messages from as early as 2022.

"The case regarding the positive test for HCTZ has been settled, but the AIU will continue to investigate the suspicious material recovered from the runner's phone to ascertain if any further infractions have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the AIU, 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, Chepngetich's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

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

At a later interview on 11 July, Chepngetich was shown the aforementioned suspicious evidence obtained from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been disproven by the authority.

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

The AIU had "major doubts about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the sport's anti-doping rules, such "carelessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an increased four-year sanction is applicable".

An standard 12-month decrease was granted after Chepngetich admitted the anti-doping rule violations within the specified 20-day period.

The 36-month suspension started on April 19 - when Chepngetich agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's results, awards, championships, participation and prize money from March 14 forfeited.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"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 anti-doping efforts capable of uncovering doping violations performed by top competitors in their races."