🔗 Share this article

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

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

Chepngetich's achievements which pre-date that test - including her global best performance of 2:09:56 in Chicago in October 2024 - will remain valid.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had sought a four-year suspension but the 31-year-old punishment was reduced to three years because she admitted to the infractions.

However, the AIU will keep examining proof from the athlete's phone which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her positive test may have been deliberate" - featuring messages dating back to the year 2022.

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

'Nobody is above the rules'

When interviewed in April by the integrity body, Chepngetich, the first woman to run a marathon in under 2:10, could not provide an explanation for the failed test.

While the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 ng/mL in samples, the athlete's sample showed an approximate level of 3,800 ng/mL.

Small amounts of HCTZ under the detection threshold were also identified in a sample collected from the runner 14 days prior, on 28 February.

At a later interview on 11 July, the record holder was shown the previously mentioned questionable proof acquired from her phone. In the meantime, contamination had also been ruled out by the authority.

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

The AIU had "serious reservations about the credibility of the revised account" and, in the framework of the sport's anti-doping regulations, such "carelessness" is deemed "implied intention, for which an longer 48-month penalty applies".

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

The 36-month suspension started on 19 April - when Chepngetich agreed to a temporary ban - with the competitor's results, awards, titles, participation and earnings from March 14 lost.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

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

"The road-running industry should be praised for collectively funding doping prevention capable of revealing doping violations committed by top competitors in their events."