The guy improved a lot, but we don't know when he started using EPO. He had gone to Albuquerque several times (late 96-98) and he was improving without EPO before he took EPO. He stayed in rented rooms from the Hellebuyk family.
On another note, some of the French arab athletes got in trouble in Albuquerque for going to prostitution places and creating a scandal there.
When he got down to 30:30 for 10,000 (from 32:00) that was over a period of two years, and I think it was natural progression without EPO, but then his real improvement became swifter following several training camps in the U.S. in Albuquerque, in the company of athletes like Benoit Zwierchleski (2:06/marathon) and several other athletes, mostly of North African descent. He was, of course, training harder, and had joined a famous club in Marseille, which had a lot of elite athletes, including Abdellah Behar (13:16/27:40/2:09) - not saying any comment about Behar, as we have no reason to believe he took stuff. Other athletes were under suspicion, but continued to run for the club.
Even Mohammed Essaid, from Grenoble, who got down to 13:03 - we believe he is clean, and he comes from a very honest muslim family - his brother runs in Normandy. They have both sworn on the Koran and their mothers' heads that they have never used illegal stuff. When muslims swear on the heads of their mother, that means they are being truthful, or so they claim. Every time I have spoken with muslim runners, and they say 'wa allah' it means something very serious. I had little reason to disbelieve them, but some posters here will think I am being naive. But I am with muslims every day, and can read them.....better than most western runners. Of course, no proof which is 100%.
Several female athletes who were suddenly running around 32:30-33:00 were also found suspect, and a couple of them were busted in later years, but they always came back. France, although strict on these matters, recognizes that once a runner has done his/her time, there is no legal reason to impede their renewal of career and licence to run. Anglo saxons have a much stricter outlook in that regard, and the offending runner would find it hard to find a club - not so in France.
Going back to the French arab runner (32:00 to 29:00, but really 30:30 to 29:00, we think) - So his real improvement with EPO was probably not more than 60 seconds. He also got down to 13:56 for 5000, and his previous 'normal' times in previous two years was around 14:30. It was a huge jump. What we are not certain about is when he started taking EPO, and when he stopped. Also, just like Lombard, he was on track for solid improvement anyway.
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