🔗 Share this article

Female long-distance global champion the athlete has been suspended for three years after the Kenyan admitted to doping infractions.

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 14 March.

Chepngetich's achievements which pre-date that sample - including her world record time of two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds in Chicago in October 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a four-year ban but the runner's penalty was lowered to 36 months because she admitted to the violations.

Nonetheless, the integrity unit will continue to investigate evidence from Chepngetich's mobile device which it found suggest "strong grounds that her positive test may have been deliberate" - featuring messages dating back to 2022.

"The case regarding the failed test for the substance has been resolved, but the unit will continue to investigate the suspicious material found on the runner's phone to determine if any other violations have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

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

Although HCTZ has a minimum reporting level of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in samples, Chepngetich's test showed an estimated concentration of 3,800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic under the detection threshold were also identified in a sample collected from Chepngetich 14 days prior, on 28 February.

At a subsequent meeting on July 11, Chepngetich was shown the previously mentioned suspicious evidence acquired from her mobile. Meanwhile, contamination had also been disproven by the authority.

The athlete altered her story on July 31, stating that she had used her housemaid's medication - labeled as being HCTZ - after falling sick 48 hours prior to the positive test.

The AIU had "serious reservations about the credibility of the new version of events" and, in the context of the athletics' doping rules, such "recklessness" is considered "indirect intent, for which an longer 48-month sanction applies".

An automatic one-year reduction was applied after Chepngetich admitted the doping rule violations inside the 20 days required.

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

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

"Although unfortunate for those who put their trust in this runner, this is how the system is supposed to work."

"Marathon organizers should be praised for jointly supporting anti-doping efforts able to revealing substance abuses performed by top competitors in their races."