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Women's marathon world record-holder the athlete has been suspended for three years after the runner acknowledged doping infractions.

Chepngetich was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on 14 March.

Chepngetich's accomplishments which pre-date that sample - including her global best performance of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in the Chicago event in 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year suspension but the runner's penalty was lowered to three years because she admitted to the violations.

Nonetheless, the integrity unit will keep examining evidence from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been intentional" - featuring communications from as early as 2022.

"This matter regarding the positive test for the substance has been settled, but the unit will continue to investigate the questionable evidence found on the runner's device to ascertain if any further infractions have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When questioned in April by the AIU, the marathoner, the initial female to run a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the positive test.

Although HCTZ has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in samples, Chepngetich's test showed an approximate level of 3,800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic below the minimal reporting level were also identified in a test taken from the runner two weeks earlier, on 28 February.

At a later interview on July 11, the record holder was presented with the aforementioned suspicious evidence obtained from her mobile. Meanwhile, accidental exposure had also been ruled out by the AIU.

Chepngetich changed her explanation on 31 July, claiming that she had used her domestic worker's pills - labeled as being the banned substance - after becoming ill two days before the positive test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the context of the athletics' doping regulations, such "recklessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month sanction applies".

An standard 12-month decrease was applied after the runner confessed to the anti-doping breaches inside the 20 days required.

The three-year ban commenced on April 19 - when the athlete agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's performances, awards, titles, participation and earnings from March 14 lost.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

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

"The road-running industry should be praised for jointly supporting doping prevention capable of uncovering doping violations committed by elite athletes in their events."