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Female long-distance world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been banned for three years after the Kenyan acknowledged anti-doping rule violations.

The record holder 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.

Chepngetich's accomplishments which pre-date that test - such as her global best time of 2:09:56 in Chicago in October 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year suspension but the runner's punishment was reduced to 36 months because she admitted to the violations.

Nonetheless, the integrity unit will keep examining proof from Chepngetich's phone which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been deliberate" - including communications dating back to 2022.

"This matter regarding the positive test for HCTZ has been settled, but the unit will keep looking into the suspicious material recovered from the runner's device to ascertain if any other violations have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

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

While HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, the athlete's sample showed an estimated concentration of 3,800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic below the detection threshold were also found in a test collected 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 acquired from her mobile. In the meantime, contamination had also been disproven by the AIU.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, stating that she had taken her housemaid's pills - labeled as being the banned substance - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the failed test.

The unit had "serious reservations about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the context of the sport's doping regulations, such "recklessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month penalty is applicable".

An standard 12-month decrease was applied after Chepngetich confessed to the anti-doping rule violations inside the specified 20-day period.

The three-year ban commenced on April 19 - when Chepngetich accepted a temporary ban - with the runner's results, awards, championships, appearance and prize money from 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is above the rules."

"Although unfortunate for those who put their trust in this athlete, this is how the system is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be praised for collectively funding anti-doping efforts capable of revealing doping violations committed by elite athletes in their events."