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

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

Chepngetich's accomplishments which occurred before that test - such as her world record performance of 2:09:56 in the Chicago event in 2024 - will remain valid.

The sports governing body had requested a four-year suspension but the 31-year-old penalty was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

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

"This matter concerning the positive test for HCTZ has been settled, but the unit will keep looking into the questionable evidence found on Chepngetich's phone to ascertain if any further infractions have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When questioned in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the initial female to complete a marathon in under 2:10, was unable to give an explanation for the failed test.

While the substance has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Traces of HCTZ below the minimal reporting level were also identified in a test taken from the runner two weeks earlier, on February 28.

At a later interview on July 11, the record holder was shown the previously mentioned questionable proof acquired from her phone. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the AIU.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, claiming that she had used her housemaid's medication - marked as being HCTZ - after becoming ill two days before the failed test.

The unit had "serious reservations about the reliability of the revised account" and, in the context of the sport's doping regulations, such "recklessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month sanction applies".

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

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

"No one is above the rules."

"Although disappointing for those who had faith in this athlete, this is how the process is supposed to work."

"The road-running industry should be praised for jointly supporting anti-doping efforts able to uncovering substance abuses performed by top competitors in their races."