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Women's marathon world record-holder the athlete has been prohibited for 36 months after the Kenyan confessed to anti-doping rule violations.

The record holder was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a positive test for a banned substance - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on March 14.

Chepngetich's achievements which occurred before that test - such as her global best time of 2:09:56 in Chicago in 2024 - will still stand.

The sports governing body had sought a 48-month suspension but the 31-year-old punishment was reduced to three years because she admitted to the violations.

However, the AIU will continue to investigate evidence from the athlete's phone which it found indicate "a reasonable suspicion that her positive test may have been intentional" - featuring messages from as early as the year 2022.

"The case regarding the failed test for HCTZ has been settled, but the AIU will keep looking into the questionable evidence recovered from the runner's device to ascertain if any other violations have occurred."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

When interviewed in April by the integrity body, the marathoner, the first woman to complete a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, 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 estimated concentration of 3800 ng/mL.

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

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, Chepngetich was shown the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been disproven by the AIU.

Chepngetich changed her explanation on July 31, claiming that she had taken her domestic worker's pills - labeled as being HCTZ - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the failed test.

The AIU had "major doubts about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the context of the athletics' anti-doping regulations, such "recklessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month penalty is applicable".

An automatic one-year reduction was granted 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 agreed to a temporary ban - with the runner's results, awards, titles, participation and prize money since March 14 lost.

"Nobody is above the rules."

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

"The road-running industry should be commended for jointly supporting doping prevention able to uncovering doping violations committed by top competitors in their events."