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Women's marathon global champion the athlete has been suspended for 36 months after the runner confessed to doping rule violations.

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

The athlete's accomplishments which pre-date that sample - such as her world record time of 2:09:56 in the Chicago event in 2024 - will remain valid.

The sports governing body had sought a four-year suspension but the 31-year-old penalty was lowered to three years because she admitted to the violations.

However, the integrity unit will continue to investigate evidence from Chepngetich's phone which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her positive test may have been intentional" - featuring communications dating back to the year 2022.

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

'Nobody is above the rules'

When questioned in the fourth month by the AIU, Chepngetich, the first woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours 10 minutes, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

Although the substance has a minimum reporting level of 20 ng/mL in urine, Chepngetich's sample showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of the diuretic under the detection threshold were also found in a test taken from Chepngetich two weeks earlier, on 28 February.

At a later interview on 11 July, the record holder was presented with the aforementioned suspicious evidence obtained from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been ruled out by the AIU.

The athlete altered her story on July 31, claiming that she had used her domestic worker's pills - marked as being the banned substance - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the failed test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the reliability of the new version of events" and, in the context of the sport's anti-doping rules, such "carelessness" is deemed "indirect intent, for which an increased four-year sanction is applicable".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after the runner admitted the anti-doping breaches inside the 20 days required.

The three-year ban commenced on April 19 - when the athlete agreed to a temporary ban - with the competitor's performances, honors, championships, appearance and earnings since 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is above the rules."

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

"The road-running industry should be commended for collectively funding anti-doping efforts capable of uncovering substance abuses committed by top competitors in their races."