Hamza Driouch in Drake 1500

just peeped his socials—looks like that 15’07 was his first race back after army training. Makes sense now! Dude’s officially repping the U.S. too… man’s an American now! Stars, stripes, and second winds!

Probably anyone who clicks on this thread is familiar with Driouch’s story, but if not: he received a fair bit of hype in 2012 when, aged 17, he won the 1500 at World Juniors, ran 3:33 and 3:50–this hype was fueled in part by his being a Moroccan-born runner with a resemblance to Hicham El Guerrouj.

As far as I can remember, he never ran faster than in 2012, although his times from 2013 and 2014 would be a little trickier to find because they have been expunged: in early 2015 it was announced he had been banned for biological passport abnormalities. Since returning to competition in 2017 his 1500 best is a 3:37 from 2020, but 3:40+ has been more typical.

He was very good but then also doped.

Another interesting note was he was coached by Kada, El Guerrouj’s coach and then Jama Aden. Now someone saying Aden doped them wouldn’t surprise anyone but it seemed he said Kada doped him at some point. He might’ve retracted it, but as suspicious as many are of El Guerrouj and Moroccans, athletes had not pointed the finger at Kada outside of this. A skeptic would call that omertà but either way who doped Driouch was an interesting topic.

i misremembered it a bit (it seems he really implicated Aden) but here’s an article: https://www.letsrun.com/news/2016/02/hamza-driouch-retracts-claim-coach-jama-aden-whose-athletes-broke-3-world-records-yesterday-doped/

For real, no way a 17-year-old just pulls that off on his own—dude was definitely in bad hands. I can’t even imagine he knew what he was taking. The Qatari federation gotta be looked into, no doubt—he was a minor back then.

At one point he went to Australia to train with Nick Bideau’s group. He raced a couple of times, slow, and seemed to disappear.

Have to feel bad for a 17yo kid that got treated like that. Seems to be a good guy. Aden and Kada are BOTH bad news.

He’s now the wrong side of 30.

Any stories out there of his time training and racing in Australia?

At that moment, Driouch was in Ethiopia with the Jama Aden group and was unaware of his ban. However, the Qatar Athletics Federation never shared the docs with him, nor explained his rights…they just forged his signature. From what I heard from someone in the business, WA was aware of this issue.

To be fair, wouldn't WCAP (world class athlete program) also require one to be a world class athlete? Not 15:11 5k

You guys seem so much ignorant in the sport field. I wonder if anyone of you could go back to competitive and do world records after 6/7 months of army basic training, and more than a year out of competitions🧐. If any one has any knowledge in body physiology and adaptation would understand that results come step by step

You may need to do some research before talking. The WCAP rules and policies section do not mention or refer to any exclusion toward already completed doping sanctions. From the WCAP website, I read, “…history of doping violations may be reviewed in the context of overall military service and conduct.”

The shadiest training group ever... They all just disappeared.

He may follow up with all army trainings in world and still people will talk about him. Not sure if you have the b* to move your b* from the chair and win a neighbourhood race