Saturday, October 25, 2025 - Women’s marathon world record holder, Ruth Chepngetich has been banned for three years after testing positive for a prohibited substance earlier this year, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has announced.
Chepngetich tested positive for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a
diuretic used to treat fluid retention and hypertension, in a sample collected
on March 14 and subsequently accepted a provisional suspension. According to
the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), diuretics like HCTZ can be used to mask or
flush previously taken prohibited substances from an athlete’s system.
The three-year ban was reduced from a potential four years
after the Kenyan athlete admitted to the doping violation. Chepngetich is now
eligible to compete again in April 2028. Her results since March 14 have been
disqualified, but her marathon world record of two hours, nine minutes, and 56
seconds, set in Chicago last year, will still stand.
The 31-year-old is a three-time Chicago Marathon winner and
holds a world championships gold medal over the distance from 2019. She became
the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10 last October, surpassing the
previous record set by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa.
According to the AIU, Chepngetich initially could not provide
an explanation for the positive test during interviews in April and July,
maintaining that she “had never doped,” even when shown evidence from her phone
suggesting the positive test “may have been intentional.” Later that month,
Chepngetich wrote to the AIU, claiming she had taken her housemaid’s medication
after feeling unwell two days before the positive test but forgot to disclose
this to investigators.
The AIU stated that this explanation was “hardly credible,”
describing it as the sort of “recklessness” that amounts to “indirect intent”
and warrants a four-year suspension. Her sanction was reduced by a year after
she accepted the penalty within 20 days. An estimated concentration of
3800ng/ml of HCTZ was found in the positive urine sample from March,
significantly exceeding the minimum reporting limit of 20ng/ml.
Brett Clothier, head of the AIU, confirmed that while the
case regarding the positive test for HCTZ has been resolved, the AIU will
continue to investigate the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich’s
phone to determine if any other violations have occurred.
AIU chair David Howman emphasized that this case highlights
how “nobody is above the rules” when it comes to doping violations.
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