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Women's marathon global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for 36 months after the runner confessed to doping infractions.

The record holder was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

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

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a 48-month ban but the 31-year-old penalty was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

Nonetheless, the AIU will continue to investigate evidence from Chepngetich's mobile device which it found indicate "strong grounds that her positive test may have been intentional" - including messages from as early as the year 2022.

"The case concerning the positive test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the AIU will keep looking into the questionable evidence found on Chepngetich's device to determine if any further infractions have occurred."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When questioned in April by the AIU, Chepngetich, the initial female to run a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

While the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in urine, Chepngetich's sample showed an approximate level of 3,800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of the diuretic below the detection threshold were also identified in a test collected from the runner two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was shown the aforementioned questionable proof acquired from her phone. In the meantime, contamination 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 - labeled as being HCTZ - 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 sport's anti-doping regulations, such "recklessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month sanction applies".

An standard 12-month decrease was applied after the runner confessed to the anti-doping breaches inside the 20 days required.

The three-year ban started on 19 April - when the athlete accepted a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's results, honors, titles, participation and earnings since 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

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

"Marathon organizers should be praised for collectively funding doping prevention able to uncovering substance abuses performed by elite athletes in their races."