Former Tokyo Marathon Champion Ruti Aga Banned Six Years
The Athletics Integrity Unit added four years for tampering to a two-year ban for a positive test, saying she submitted a prescription from a clinic that does not exist.
Ethiopia's Ruti Aga, who won the 2019 Tokyo Marathon, has been banned for six years from March 15, 2026, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced October 22, for the presence and use of a prohibited substance and for tampering, Canadian Running reports.
The case began with a sample taken after Aga won the Meishan Renshou Half Marathon in China on March 15, which tested positive for methylprednisolone, a glucocorticoid banned in competition when taken by injection, by mouth or rectally. That carried a two-year ban.
The tampering charge added four years. The unit found that Aga gave false information in an interview on April 21 and, on May 4, produced a forged or manipulated document to support a prescription, from a clinic that does not exist and signed by a family member with no medical registration. She had said the positive test was related to treatment for a knee injury. Her results from the period covered by the decision are disqualified.
Aga, 32, has stood on the podium at World Marathon Majors six times, including second in Berlin in 2017 and 2018, and has a personal best of 2:18:09.
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