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Female long-distance world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been prohibited for three years after the runner confessed to anti-doping infractions.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in July following a positive test for a banned substance - a prohibited substance often utilized as a masking agent - on 14 March.

The athlete's accomplishments which occurred before that test - including her world record performance of 2:09:56 in Chicago in 2024 - will still stand.

The sports governing body had requested a four-year ban but the 31-year-old punishment was lowered to 36 months because she confessed to the violations.

Nonetheless, the integrity unit will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her failed test may have been deliberate" - featuring communications dating back to 2022.

"The case regarding the positive test for the substance has been settled, but the unit will keep looking into the suspicious material found on the runner's phone to ascertain if any other violations have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When questioned in the fourth month by the AIU, Chepngetich, the initial female to complete a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, was unable to give an reason for the failed test.

While HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, Chepngetich's test showed an estimated concentration of 3800 ng/mL.

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

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, Chepngetich was presented with the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her phone. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been disproven by the authority.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, claiming that she had used her domestic worker's medication - labeled as being HCTZ - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the failed test.

The unit had "serious reservations about the credibility of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the athletics' doping regulations, such "carelessness" is considered "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month penalty applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after Chepngetich confessed to the anti-doping breaches within the 20 days required.

The 36-month suspension started on 19 April - when Chepngetich agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's performances, honors, titles, appearance and earnings since March 14 lost.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

"Although disappointing for those who had faith in this athlete, this is how the system is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be commended for collectively funding doping prevention capable of revealing substance abuses performed by elite athletes in their events."