Women’s marathon world-record holder Ruth Chepng’etich has been banned for three years after she tested positive for a banned substance.
The Kenyan, 31, set a time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds at the Chicago Marathon in 2024.
Now, she has been given a three-year suspension after she admitted to violating anti-doping regulations.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced their verdict on Chepng’etich on Thursday, declaring that tests had found diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in a sample she gave back in March.
The substance is used to mask the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and the AIU said that Chepng’etich had accepted the charges and sanction.
She has been banned from athletics since July, the AIU said in a statement, where they also announced that her previous records and achievements would still stand.
AIU Chair David Howman said that Chepng’etich’s case demonstrated that “nobody is above the rules”.
“Women’s marathon world record-holder, Ruth Chepng'etich, has been banned for three years by the Athletics Integrity Unit, after admitting to Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) regarding the presence and use of hydrochlorothiazide,” the AIU statement read.
“The 31-year-old Kenyan, a former World marathon champion and a three-time winner of the Chicago Marathon, accepted the charges and sanction following a positive test for the banned diuretic from a sample on 14 March this year and a subsequent AIU investigation into the circumstances.
“Whilst diuretics are known to be abused by athletes to mask the presence in urine of other Prohibited Substances, HCTZ has also been identified as a potential contaminant in pharmaceutical products.
“It has been ascribed by WADA a minimum reporting limit of 20ng/ml, below which a positive test should not be reported. An estimated concentration of 3800ng/mL of HCTZ was found in the positive urine sample of Chepng’etich.”
