American middle-distance runner Jonah Koech has received a three-year ban from athletics for blood doping, and his 2025 US Outdoor Championships title has been stripped.
The US Anti-Doping Agency said Koech's violation was identified through "highly atypical blood values in his athlete biological passport (ABP)," according to BBC Sport. An athlete biological passport tracks blood values over time, allowing anti-doping authorities to detect signs of prohibited practices even when no banned substance is found directly in a test sample.
Koech, 29, accepted the ban "for the use of a prohibited substance and/or method," USADA said. The agency added that he "has been disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to 30 July 2025, the date of his first abnormal blood sample, including forfeiture of any medals, points, and prizes."
His blood samples were collected on July 30 and August 8 of last year, bracketing the US Outdoor Championships where he had emerged as a surprise winner. Koech crossed the line ahead of Ethan Strand and 2024 Olympic gold medalist Cole Hocker in a meet record time of three minutes 30.17 seconds.
That result now stands erased from the record books.
Koech has not competed since finishing 13th in the 1500m final at the World Championships in Tokyo last September. He was born in Kenya and competed collegiately in the United States from 2015 to 2019 before becoming eligible to represent the country in June 2021.
The ban runs three years from the date of the violation.
