Though he still sits at number four in the all-time fastest athletes on ths race I have to agree with you that if anybody will break any time soon, it will have to be Asbel Kiprop!!!!!

Before a test for EPO was developed, Moroccans were amazingly dominant. They were winning gold medals all over the place. They were highly placed in the world cross country championships. They were winning city marathons. Setting records. Heck I remember a Moroccan breaking the steeplechase record before Shaheen broke it.

A test for EPO was validated in 2003 and less than a year later El Guerrouj retired at age 30. The 2004 Olympics was his last race.

OK I am not saying I am sure of anything but the dramatic decline of Moroccan athletics and its coincidence with EPO testing is suspect.

As for Kiprop breaking the record, I doubt it. 2 seconds is huge and Kiprop has never shown any appetite for records. He just wants to win. He seems to do the bare minimum it takes to win. he is not like Rudisha who wants to make a statement.

[quote=Alba]Before a test for EPO was developed, Moroccans were amazingly dominant. They were winning gold medals all over the place. They were highly placed in the world cross country championships. They were winning city marathons. Setting records. Heck I remember a Moroccan breaking the steeplechase record before Shaheen broke it.

A test for EPO was validated in 2003 and less than a year later El Guerrouj retired at age 30. The 2004 Olympics was his last race.

you are right remember rashid ramzi he was the only morrocan ever caught cheating although running for bahrain but spent his entire training period in morroco he could not resist the temptation of running in the beijing olympics after hearing the perks that the king of bahrain was giving for any gold medal in the 1500m final he demolished the field that included kiprop .a few months later he was banned.it looks like the morrocans shut down the "programme "after a method of catching cheats was deviced given that they have never won a medal since then...

Madollar

There are plenty of top tier Morroccans who have been busted besides Ramzi

There is Mariem Selsouli a medal contender (14;36 for the 5K) who was busted at London 2012
There is Amine Laalou, also a medal contender who was busted at London 2012
And of course Mohammed Mourhit who broke the steeplechase record before Shaheen was also busted for doping soon after he broke the record.