Kenyan distance runner Bernard Kibet Koech has been suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for four years for doping. The 26-year-old Olympian’s Athletics Biological Passport (ABP) showed anomalies in its profile consistent with the use of the red blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO).
Tests that spanned 2020 to 2024 showed concerning changes.
Koech did not deny that there may have been EPO usage or blood profile abnormalities; he blamed the test results on a combination of factors, including COVID, iron supplementation and high-altitude training.
A panel of independent experts identified a “distinct sequence of abnormalities’ in blood samples collected between June and July 2024, just weeks before the Olympic Games.
The tribunal noted that Koech’s hemoglobin (HGB) levels and “off-score,” a metric sensitive to blood manipulation, showed extreme deviations.
One specific sample was flagged as an outlier even at a statistical specificity of 99.99 per cent. The expert panel concluded that these values were: “Highly likely [to have] been used and that it is unlikely that the passport is the result of any other cause, such as environmental factors or a medical condition.”
Koech finished fifth in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games 10,000m, clocking a 26:43 performance. He holds a world-best known time for 10 miles (58:45), and has a 58:45 half-marathon personal best. His 5000m best is 13:00.38 from 2023. All results from June 26, 2024, to June 10, 2025, will be annulled.
Kenya has had between 400 and 500 athletes suspended for doping-related issues since 2016. The country is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s watch list.
Several other profile doping cases from Kenya have set alarm bells off, including the women’s world record holder Ruth Chepngetich’s 2024 Chicago Marathon win at 2:09:56.
