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Women's marathon global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been banned for three years after the runner 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 often utilized as a masking agent - on March 14.

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that sample - including her world record time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in the Chicago event in 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a four-year ban but the runner's penalty was reduced to three years because she admitted to the infractions.

However, the integrity unit will keep examining proof from the athlete's phone which it found indicate "strong grounds that her failed test may have been deliberate" - featuring communications from as early as 2022.

"The case concerning the failed test for the substance has been settled, but the AIU will keep looking into the questionable evidence found on Chepngetich's device to ascertain if any further infractions have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When questioned in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an reason for the positive test.

While HCTZ 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.

Traces of HCTZ under the detection threshold were also found in a test taken from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a later interview on July 11, Chepngetich was presented with the previously mentioned questionable proof acquired from her mobile. In the meantime, contamination had also been ruled out by the authority.

Chepngetich altered her story on 31 July, claiming that she had taken her housemaid's pills - marked as being the banned substance - after becoming ill 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the framework 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 granted after Chepngetich confessed to the anti-doping breaches within the 20 days required.

The 36-month suspension started on 19 April - when Chepngetich accepted a temporary ban - with the runner's results, awards, titles, appearance and earnings from March 14 lost.

"No one is above the rules."

"While unfortunate for those who had faith in this runner, this is how the process is supposed to work."

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