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

Chepngetich was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a failed test for a banned substance - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that test - including her global best time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in Chicago in October 2024 - will still stand.

The sports governing body had sought a four-year ban but the 31-year-old penalty was lowered to three years because she confessed to the infractions.

Nonetheless, the AIU will keep examining evidence from the athlete's phone which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been deliberate" - featuring messages dating back to 2022.

"This matter regarding the positive test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the unit will keep looking into the suspicious material recovered from Chepngetich's device to ascertain if any other violations have occurred."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the integrity body, Chepngetich, the initial female to complete a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

Although HCTZ has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in urine, the athlete's sample showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of the diuretic under the detection threshold were also identified in a test collected from the runner 14 days prior, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, Chepngetich was presented with the aforementioned suspicious evidence acquired from her phone. Meanwhile, contamination had also been disproven by the AIU.

Chepngetich altered her story on July 31, claiming that she had used her domestic worker's pills - labeled as being the banned substance - after becoming ill 48 hours prior to the failed test.

The unit had "major doubts about the credibility of the new version of events" and, in the context of the sport's doping regulations, such "carelessness" is deemed "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month penalty applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was granted after the runner confessed to the anti-doping breaches within the specified 20-day period.

The 36-month suspension started on April 19 - when the athlete accepted a temporary ban - with the runner's results, honors, titles, participation and earnings since March 14 lost.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

"While disappointing for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the process is designed to operate."

"The road-running industry should be praised for collectively funding doping prevention capable of uncovering doping violations performed by elite athletes in their races."