The women’s marathon world record holder had her ban reduced by a year after pleading guilty and accepting the sanction.
Women’s marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetic has been disqualified for three years as a result of the Marathon investigation. Athletics Integrity Unit.
The 31-year-old Kenyan, who won last year’s Chicago Marathon in a record 2:09:56, tested positive for the banned substance hydrochlorothiazide on March 14, 2025.
Hydrochlorothiazide is a diuretic and is used clinically to treat fluid retention and hypertension. It can also be misused to mask the presence of urine for illicit drugs.
According to WADA’s technical requirements for laboratories, HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 ng/ml in urine, meaning that detections below this concentration are reported as negative. The AIU said Cepngetic had a concentration of about 3,800 ng/ml in his urine.
During an initial interview by AIU investigators on April 16, Cepngetic did not provide an explanation for the positive test. To rule out the possibility of contamination, all supplements and medications he had taken prior to testing positive were collected. His mobile phone was also copied for analysis.
In a follow-up interview on July 11, Czepngetic was confronted with evidence obtained from his cell phone that showed reasonable doubt that his positive test may have been intentional.
This included “a screenshot of a WhatsApp message he received about testosterone” as well as “messages related to unknown third parties working on doping-related ‘programs'” and “an image showing oxandrolone” (a banned anabolic androgenic steroid).
The investigation revealed that the person who sent Chepngetic testosterone whatsapps was another athlete with whom he corresponded regularly.
During this interview, Cepngetic was also informed that all supplements and drugs taken for analysis at a WADA-accredited laboratory had tested negative for HCTZ.
He stood by his position that he could not explain the positive test and that he had never doped.
Then, on July 31, Czepngetic wrote to the AIU that she had fallen ill two days before the positive test (March 12) and had taken her housemaid’s medication as treatment, showing a photo of the medication’s blister pack labeled “hydrochlorothiazide.” The Kenyan added that he forgot to report this incident to the AAU investigators.
While the standard sanction for a positive HCTZ test is a two-year ban, the AIU concluded that Cepngetic had “recklessly” taken his housemaid’s medication and that his actions amounted to “implicit intent”, which carries a four-year ban.
Because Cepngetic pleaded guilty and accepted the sanction within 20 days, the ban was later reduced to three years.
The AIU will continue to investigate the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich’s phone to determine whether other violations occurred.
Since 24 March 2025, all of Chepngetic’s results have been disqualified, meaning that his world record, which has been certified, still stands.
