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Female long-distance world record-holder the athlete has been banned for 36 months after the runner acknowledged doping rule violations.

The record holder was provisionally suspended in the seventh month following a positive test for a banned substance - a banned diuretic often utilized as a masking agent - on March 14.

Chepngetich's achievements 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 36 months because she confessed to the infractions.

However, the AIU will keep examining proof from the athlete's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her failed test may have been deliberate" - featuring communications from as early as the year 2022.

"This matter regarding the positive test for the substance has been resolved, but the AIU will continue to investigate the questionable evidence recovered from the runner's phone to determine if any further infractions have taken place."

'Nobody is above the rules'

When questioned in April by the integrity body, Chepngetich, the first woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, was unable to give an explanation for the failed test.

Although HCTZ has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in urine, Chepngetich's sample showed an estimated concentration of 3800 ng/mL.

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

At a subsequent meeting on 11 July, Chepngetich was presented with the aforementioned questionable proof acquired from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been ruled out by the authority.

The athlete altered her story on July 31, stating that she had used her housemaid's medication - marked as being HCTZ - after falling sick two days before the positive test.

The unit had "major doubts about the credibility of the new version of events" and, in the framework of the athletics' anti-doping rules, such "recklessness" is considered "implied intention, for which an increased four-year sanction applies".

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

The 36-month suspension started on 19 April - when Chepngetich agreed to a voluntary provisional suspension - with the runner's performances, honors, titles, participation and prize money from March 14 forfeited.

"No one is exempt from regulations."

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

"The road-running industry should be praised for jointly supporting doping prevention capable of revealing doping violations performed by elite athletes in their races."