IT’S A FAIR QUESTION: After someone wins the USAF 1500, knocking off the Olympic gold and bronze medalists, as well as the 5th-placer, using a stunning 52.91 last lap in a fast race: “Who is Jonah Koech, anyway?”
A graduate of St. Patrick’s High in Iten, he was coached by the famed Irish missionary/coach Colm O’Connell as a teen. In those days, he was thrilled to get one day of the week to run with 800 WR holder David Rudisha.
A scholarship to UTEP followed and Koech packed his bags for El Paso in ’15. That first fall he placed 11th in the NCAA XC. In three years for the Miners, he won 6 Conference USA titles — 3 of them in the 1500. At the NCAA level he made All-America thrice, twice in the indoor mile (6th in ’16) and once in the outdoor 800 (6th in ’18).
For the next school year he transferred to Texas Tech. He won the Big 12 1000 indoors in ’19, and outdoors that year placed 7th in the NCAA 800. His best times as a collegian were 1:46.23 and 3:43.39 — solid, but shoe contracts were not coming.
So he joined the U.S. Army and was fast-tracked for U.S. citizenship. Trained as a mechanic, he emerged after the pandemic running bests of 1:45.58 and 3:40.40 in ’21. He made the 800 semis at the Trials.
In ’22 he placed 2nd in the USATF 800 and ran in the heats at the WC in Eugene, where he was disqualified for jostling. The next year he missed with injury, but last season he got faster at 800, running a PR 1:44.32 to place 5th in the Trials. Late in the season, in a small meet in Serbia, he ran a 1500 PR of 3:37.27.
Koech now trains in the Baltimore area with the Under Armour/Mission Run team, coached by Tom Brumlik, who formerly worked at American U with Matt Centrowitz. This year, struggling with the same upper hamstring injury that had felled him in ’23, he spent a few months in Colorado Springs training under Haron Lagat, a former Kenyan steepler who became part of the Army program in ’16.
For Koech, winning the USATF title this year was all about opportunity. In an onfield interview after his race, he thanked the United States for the opportunities he’s been given through the Army. Later, he pointed out that in his opinion, he was in better shape last year, but he’s only gotten the right racing opportunities this season.
“I’ve been here for the last three years, but I didn’t make the team since ’22,” he said. “I’ve not been making the team. And last year was my best year of my life. So today was just my day.”
This season has been a strange one for Koech. He placed 5th in the USATF Indoor 800 in 1:45.82. He was set to begin his outdoor season with an 800 at the Rabat DL. However, wires got crossed and he found there was no more room in that race. Somehow his agent talked organizers into letting him into the 1500 — a big ask for a 3:37 performer.
He shocked there by taking the win in a PR 3:31.43, defeating a host of better-known names including Reynold Kipkorir and France’s Azeddine Habz. He covered the last lap in 53 seconds.
A week later, in Nairobi’s altitude, he won the 800 at the Keino Classic in a PR 1:43.32. It was readily apparent that the ’25 version of Jonah Koech was functioning on a higher level. He wouldn’t race again until the USATF meet.
What was he doing in that time? He says training and rehabbing his hamstring: “The treatment and everything. All of them combined to come together, because I was looking at everything that we’ve done…
“And come together, we sit down, we see what we need to do. And then I started watching what these guys [the top Americans] are doing. I’ve been talking to many coaches who are coaching these guys, and they’ve been friends to me. And I see what they’re doing.
“I do more than them, because I don’t rest. I rest only just on Sunday. I have six days in my week. I’ve been trying to do everything, whatever is needed to be up with these guys. You know these guys have been really doing good.
“I really do crazy work on this. So I was ‘Why am I not beating these guys?’ That’s what kicked into my mind. And then I started now thinking like, ‘Oh, I can do it.’ And then when I went to Rabat, that gave me an opportunity. I started trusting more on myself. One week later, I ran 1:43.”
In some hard workouts later that week, he hurt his hamstring again. “I had not done some speedwork, so I ended up going to do a little bit of hard workouts, and then I blew up my hamstring.”
Counterintuitively, he says that the hamstring injury was actually a blessing: “That’s when I rested now, everything came together. And everything was like, boom! It worked really well. When I rested, when I come back to my workouts, I was doing really good. I was like, ‘Wow, this hamstring!’ But the following day, it was really hurting, but I can still push. Because I rested a lot.”
He says that his hamstring is only 75% recovered now, and he hopes it is at full-strength in Tokyo.
Koech says that recovery was key in not breaking down under such a heavy training load. “It’s about rest. That’s the main important thing, because I eat, sleep, and work out. That’s it, nothing else. And watch movies, that’s it.
“Maybe on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, once a month, I go to work for military. That’s it.”
Working with Lagat in Colorado Springs was helpful because he was able to do some of his military duties there. And he says that Lagat “has a passion.” He explains, “He doesn’t even ask anything from me. He just wants you to show him. That’s all. He’s somebody who has something in his heart. He wants to see what’s up. But I wish if you call him now and just ask him out, he will tell you how he feels now. He will be jumping up and down now. I know how he is. He’s somebody who is the happiest even more than anybody else now.”
The main thing before he races again, says Koech, is “we have to treat this leg. That’s the main agenda now.”
Now 28, Koech admits that his favorite event is still the 800, though his agent and coaches have been pushing him to commit to the 1500. He says he didn’t decide to run the longer race in Eugene until the Monday before.
Can he win in Tokyo? “I don’t know what to say, but everybody’s beatable. Even me, I’m beatable. So everybody’s beatable. It will be about how that person will do that day.”
