The paperwork is what buried her. When investigators asked Ruti Aga how a prohibited steroid had ended up in her system after her victory at a half marathon in China, she produced a prescription supposedly written by an Ethiopian doctor to treat knee pain.

The clinic named on the document did not exist. The signature belonged to a family member with no medical credentials.

That piece of fraud is the reason the 32-year-old Ethiopian will be out of athletics until September 2032. The Athletics Integrity Unit on Thursday confirmed a six-year ban in its first-instance decision: Two years for the presence and use of methylprednisolone, and a further four years for tampering with the anti-doping process. The ban runs from 10 September 2026, when she was provisionally suspended.

Aga did not respond to the notice of charges, and the decision was issued without a hearing. The investigation found she had both misled investigators during questioning and submitted the fabricated prescription.

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Methylprednisolone is a corticosteroid that can reduce pain and fatigue and speed up recovery, and is banned in competition under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

Aga tested positive after winning the Meishan Renshou Half Marathon in Meishan, China, on 15 March, where she clocked 1:08:04 ahead of China’s Liang Tiantian and He Wuga. The race is a World Athletics Platinum Label event, and the win was her return to half marathon action since 2020. Every result she has posted from that date is now disqualified.

The 2019 Tokyo champion out until 2032

Aga’s reputation was built on the full distance. She won the 2019 Tokyo Marathon in 2:20:40, and her personal best of 2:18:34 came as runner-up in Berlin in 2018.

She has stood on World Marathon Majors podiums five times: Silvers in Berlin in 2017 and 2018 and in Tokyo in 2018, bronzes in Berlin in 2016 and in New York in 2019.

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The scale of the sanction turns on the second half of it. For a first offense involving a substance like methylprednisolone, World Athletics’ anti-doping rules typically produce a two-year ban. Tampering, which covers forging documents and misleading investigators during an inquiry, carries its own additional sanction. The four extra years added to Aga’s suspension is what makes this a six-year case rather than a routine two-year one.

The AIU decision is appealable. Aga’s results from 15 March 2026 onward remain disqualified, and she cannot return to competition before 10 September 2032.

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