Hoey 3:29.75 holy sh*t. He's not just a one trick pony. What a meteoric rise over the last year Is he a real contender in the 1500 now, or does this just mean that Hocker, Kessler, and Nuguse are about to run sub-3:27?
I don't think he is a contender in the 1500m by any means still, this 100% shows though that he should have the endurance for rounds in US Champs and Worlds.
Unfortunately, he is coached by Claudio Berardelli, like Wanyouni. Beradelli has his own blood testing machine in the camp to ensure that none of his athletes are quite glowing.
You really should learn to spell Kenyan names correctly. Or at least look up the athlete you are referring to.
We have seen this song and dance plenty of time before... "young" Kenyan runner starts phenomenal times of nowhere, doesn't pass the sniff test. He will fade to obscurity as soon as he starts being tested.
Great run from Josh Hoey, was still a tiny bit skeptical of his performances, but if he keeps running fast with most certainly a lot more drug testing for him its more believable than ANOTHER no name "young" Kenyan out of nowhere... again.
Just want to add the same could be said for Koech, if he continues to be properly tested but every Kenyan that trains and lives in Kenya (Tim C. included) should have an extra layer of suspicion. This includes most of the east african countries as well.
We have seen this song and dance plenty of time before... "young" Kenyan runner starts phenomenal times of nowhere, doesn't pass the sniff test. He will fade to obscurity as soon as he starts being tested.
Great run from Josh Hoey, was still a tiny bit skeptical of his performances, but if he keeps running fast with most certainly a lot more drug testing for him its more believable than ANOTHER no name "young" Kenyan out of nowhere... again.
Just want to add the same could be said for Koech, if he continues to be properly tested but every Kenyan that trains and lives in Kenya (Tim C. included) should have an extra layer of suspicion. This includes most of the east african countries as well.
I’d ask you to name the examples of Kenyans “fading to obscurity.” Maybe you mean Ronald Kwemoi, but that’d be a stretch - he just had misfortunes at championships, but won Diamond Leagues and more after his breakout year. There’re some likely age cases but that’s somewhat of a different discussion.
The current testing system in Kenya doesn’t really have loopholes. To represent the country internationally you must be heavily tested. To be good enough to do so you’d have to be in the AIU RTP. The testing numbers are robust (avg. 12.4 tests, 9 OOC in the 9 months ahead of Paris).
Also Tim C has been training in Europe and South Africa far more than in past years. Ultimately, someone training where they’re from and have responsibilities (Tim C/others get support from Prisons, Police etc. isn’t some massive red flag, and he owns a farm there etc.) isn’t some shocking thing to me. Plenty of Westerners do altitude camps in Kenya.
From zero USA active runners under 3:30 to 4 in matter of 2 years is wild.
Yared, Hocker, Hobbs, now Hoey. Remember when Yared set the record in June 2023 at 3:29.02? My goodness, seems like decades ago. USA's finals will be wild with these other pros / college kids in the mix.
Brian Komen came out of nowhere and looked like a real threat to Jakob. Now he's back to being an also-ran.
That's two of their top 1500m guys in the last couple of years. How many more examples do you need?
You’ve given me one example of a guy who ran 3:31.0 already this year jogging the last 10 meters of the race. How was he a “real threat” to Jakob when in his PB race he lost to him by nearly 2.5s? Who’s your other example?
Some possible cheats are those that are so so, then have a great race and bomb when under closer scrutiny. Kenya seems to want to weed out cheats that might make the National Team, where a doping positive is a real black mark. I'm guessing that the "1.42" guy who was a bust in the Olympics and had run relatively so so times in college will never make a Kenyan team. It didn't seem like a bunch of college coaches were concerned about a runaway at NCAAs so maybe they could read the tea leaves.
Smart dopers know how to progress slowly and methodically.
The stupid and greedy do these big flashy drops. This Koech "kid" (lol) reminds me of Ramzi, who went from 3:39 to 3:30 in one year. They can't help themselves.
I doubt Koech will actually get popped though. Most likely he'll be forced to "dial it back" like Kwemoi.
Some possible cheats are those that are so so, then have a great race and bomb when under closer scrutiny. Kenya seems to want to weed out cheats that might make the National Team, where a doping positive is a real black mark. I'm guessing that the "1.42" guy who was a bust in the Olympics and had run relatively so so times in college will never make a Kenyan team. It didn't seem like a bunch of college coaches were concerned about a runaway at NCAAs so maybe they could read the tea leaves.
You’ve really overcomplicated the picture. World Athletics rightly wants nobody from a Category A country (Kenya) with a large number of doping bans to represent the country without a significant background (3 OOC tests) of being tested. Kenya then refuses to allow athletes to Trials who don’t have the requisite number of tests.
