Your faith in the impact of EPO and lack of OOC blood-testing is quite strong. Here are some more facts to add in: Kenya and Ethiopia began to show their depth at long distance world domination as early as the '80s, pre-EPO, in cross-country, when their populations were much smaller. EPO was available worldwide to those who wanted it, with the means (ask any cyclist). Before 2000, Kenya was subject to the same testing for EPO -- none. Between 2002-2009, Kenya was subject to the same OOC testing for EPO -- urine. The urine test was easily beatable. If guys like "Clayton Murphey, Kyle Langford, Centrowitch and Jake Wightman" wanted to reach the finals against Kenyans and Ethiopians, those were the best years to do it, when the tests were non-existant, and easily beatable. Counter-intuitively, a few Americans started improving after testing ramped up again, with the introduction of the ABP in 2009. The best distance running athletes from non-African nations are often (by far) East African ex-pats (Kipketer, Lagat, Wanjiru, Meb, Khannouchi, Farah, WCAP, ...) Kenyan ex-pats like Sammy Wanjiru were subject to "the same testing". When you compare Wanjiru's bests, in a career cut short, without any record attempts, in aggressive, tactical races, at 10000m (50 seconds), half-marathon (1 min.), and marathon (1 min.), against the all time bests of his Japanese "teammates", do you really believe that it was due to over/under the counter EPO and lack of EPO testing, while he was based in Japan? That is "quite remarkable".
Coevett wrote:
When you add in the fact that EPO is available over the counter (or 'under the counter') at every high street pharmacy in Kenya, it's quite remarkable that guys like Clayton Murphey, Kyle Langford, Centrowitch and Jake Wightman are even capable of reaching finals.
When Kenyans are subjected to the same testing as everybody else, they wil need a population of over a billion to stay dominant.