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Female long-distance world record-holder the athlete has been suspended for three years after the Kenyan acknowledged anti-doping rule violations.

The record holder was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a failed test for a banned substance - a prohibited substance often utilized as a concealing drug - on March 14.

The athlete's achievements which occurred before that test - including her global best time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in Chicago in 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a 48-month ban but the runner's punishment was reduced to three years because she confessed to the violations.

However, the integrity unit will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her failed test may have been intentional" - including communications dating back to 2022.

"The case regarding the failed test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the AIU will continue to investigate the questionable evidence found on Chepngetich's device to determine if any further infractions have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in the fourth month by the AIU, Chepngetich, the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10, was unable to give an explanation for the positive test.

Although HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, the athlete's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic below the detection threshold were also identified in a sample collected from the runner two weeks earlier, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on 11 July, Chepngetich was shown the aforementioned questionable proof acquired from her mobile. In the meantime, contamination had also been disproven by the authority.

Chepngetich changed her explanation on 31 July, stating that she had used her housemaid's pills - marked as being the banned substance - after becoming ill two days before the failed test.

The unit had "major doubts about the reliability of the revised account" and, in the framework of the sport's doping regulations, such "recklessness" is deemed "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month penalty is applicable".

An standard 12-month decrease was applied after the runner confessed to the anti-doping breaches inside the specified 20-day period.

The 36-month suspension started on April 19 - when the athlete accepted a voluntary provisional suspension - with the competitor's performances, awards, championships, participation and earnings from 14 March lost.

"No one is above the rules."

"While unfortunate for those who had faith in this runner, this is how the process is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be commended for jointly supporting doping prevention able to revealing substance abuses performed by top competitors in their events."