The AIU announced the ban on Thursday, 22 October 2026, splitting it into two years for using methylprednisolone and four years for tampering with the process.
A document submitted on 4 May 2026 claimed a prescription from a clinic that did not exist. The supposed doctor was a relative without a licence to practise.
Aga tested positive for methylprednisolone after winning a half marathon in China on 15 March 2026, a substance classed under S9 of the WADA list.
Aga did not respond to the charges, so the AIU imposed the sanction without a hearing. The suspension is counted from 10 September 2026, when she was provisionally suspended.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Thursday, 22 October 2026, that Ethiopian runner Ruti Aga has been banned for six years. The 32-year-old won the Tokyo Marathon in 2019 and has finished on the podium at the Berlin and New York marathons. She tested positive for methylprednisolone, a glucocorticoid listed under category S9 of the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list, after winning a half marathon in China on 15 March 2026. The substance is prohibited in competition. The six-year suspension is counted from 10 September 2026, the date from which she had been provisionally suspended.
Aga said a doctor in Ethiopia had given her the substance to treat knee pain. According to the AIU, she supplied false information during an interview with its representatives on 21 April 2026. On 4 May she submitted a document that purported to prove a methylprednisolone prescription had been issued during outpatient treatment at a medical centre. The AIU found that the clinic named on the prescription did not exist and that the supposed doctor was a relative without a licence to practise. Questioned by the AIU, the relative said an old prescription pad from a former employer had been used. The clinic confirmed that the person had never worked there and that the prescription did not come from it.
Aga did not respond to the charges for using methylprednisolone and for tampering with the anti-doping process. As a result, the AIU issued the six-year ban without a hearing. The sanction is split into two years for the use of the substance and four years for tampering. The AIU's announcement was issued on the same day the ban became public, and it set out each step of the investigation in its statement. Aga is a former Tokyo winner, and the ban removes her from competition for the period that follows.
Before the suspension, Aga was ranked 32nd in the women's marathon world ranking with 1,262 points, according to Mediafax. Her personal best is 2:18:09, set in 2023 at the Dongying Marathon and equalled the following year in Dubai. In Berlin she placed third in 2016 and second in 2017 and 2018. She was second in Tokyo in 2018 and third in New York in 2019. Polsat Sport adds that in 2013 she competed at the world cross country championships for junior women in Bydgoszcz, where her team won silver and she finished fifth individually.
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The Athletics Integrity Unit found that the Tokyo Marathon 2019 winner submitted a fake prescription to explain a positive methylprednisolone test. The six-year ban was imposed without a hearing after she did not respond to the charges.
AI text based on reports by Correio da Manha, Notícias ao Minuto, Mediafax.ro and other publishers. Published .