Long-distance running Record Holder Chepngetich Receives Three-Year Suspension

Female long-distance world record-holder the athlete has been suspended for three years after the Kenyan confessed to anti-doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was temporarily banned in the seventh month following a failed test for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) - a banned diuretic often utilized as a concealing drug - on March 14.

The athlete's achievements which pre-date that test - such as her global best time of 2:09:56 in the Chicago event in October 2024 - will still stand.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) had requested a four-year ban but the 31-year-old punishment was lowered to three years because she confessed to the violations.

Nonetheless, the integrity unit will continue to investigate proof from Chepngetich's phone which it found suggest "a reasonable suspicion that her positive test may have been intentional" - including communications from as early as the year 2022.

"The case concerning the failed test for HCTZ has been resolved, but the AIU will keep looking into the suspicious material found on Chepngetich's device to determine if any other violations have taken place."

'No one is exempt from regulations'

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

While the substance has a lowest detectable limit of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) in urine, Chepngetich's test showed an approximate level of 3800 ng/mL.

Traces of the diuretic below the minimal reporting level were also found in a test collected from Chepngetich 14 days prior, on February 28.

At a later interview on July 11, the record holder was shown the aforementioned questionable proof obtained from her phone. Meanwhile, contamination had also been disproven by the AIU.

The athlete changed her explanation on July 31, stating that she had used her housemaid's pills - marked as being the banned substance - after becoming ill two days before the failed test.

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

An automatic one-year reduction was granted after Chepngetich confessed to the doping rule violations within the 20 days required.

The three-year ban commenced on 19 April - when Chepngetich accepted a voluntary provisional suspension - with the competitor's results, awards, titles, participation and earnings from 14 March forfeited.

"Nobody is exempt from regulations."

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

"Marathon organizers should be commended for collectively funding anti-doping efforts capable of revealing substance abuses committed by elite athletes in their races."