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Women's marathon global champion Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for 36 months after the runner admitted to 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 March 14.

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that test - such as her global best time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in Chicago in 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year ban but the 31-year-old penalty was lowered to 36 months because she admitted to the infractions.

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

"This matter concerning the failed test for HCTZ has been settled, but the AIU will keep looking into the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich's device to ascertain if any other violations have occurred."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When questioned in April by the integrity body, Chepngetich, the initial female to run a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, was unable to give an reason for the failed test.

While the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in samples, Chepngetich's sample showed an estimated concentration of 3800 ng/mL.

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

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, the record holder was shown the aforementioned suspicious evidence obtained from her mobile. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the AIU.

The athlete changed her explanation on 31 July, claiming that she had used her domestic worker's medication - labeled as being the banned substance - after falling sick two days before the failed test.

The unit had "serious reservations about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the context of the athletics' doping rules, such "recklessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an increased four-year penalty applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after the runner confessed to the anti-doping rule violations inside the specified 20-day period.

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

"No one is exempt from regulations."

"While disappointing for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the process is supposed to work."

"The road-running industry should be praised for jointly supporting anti-doping efforts capable of uncovering doping violations committed by top competitors in their races."