Why Rashid Ramzi's sudden rise always stuck in the craw - Steve Cram

Why Rashid Ramzi's sudden rise always stuck in the craw

Rashid Ramzi came from nowhere to Olympic 1500m champion with suspicious speed and has now tested positive. By Steve Cram

Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi celebrates as he wins the men's 1500m final at the Beijing Olympic Games Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

There was a time when news that the Olympic 1500m champion had tested positive would have made the front pages and dominated the bulletins. That Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain is still largely unknown is part testimony to the growing indifference to drugs in sport <http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/drugs-in-sport> unless it is a British name and athletics <http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/athletics> ' own waning popularity. Nonetheless it was big news in the sport.

Seb Coe voiced his disappointment. I couldn't have been more delighted. Both of us and many others were far from surprised. If circumstantial evidence were permissible for positive tests then Ramzi would have been close to the top of most people's lists. That he managed to join a celebrated group of 1500m world and Olympic champions has been a source of nagging discomfort in the past few years.

His rise was backed up with little or no provenance. He was born in Morocco two days before the 1980 Moscow opening ceremony. A few days later Coe and Steve Ovett would write another great chapter in 1500m history.

Yet Ramzi had other icons to aspire to: Said Aouita and then Hicham El Guerrouj paved the way for many young Moroccans to take up running. Ramzi came under the tutelage of Khalid Boulami, an Olympic steeplechase medallist.

A less than impressive junior, Ramzi appeared to have limited prospects. In 2002, just after his 22nd birthday, he finished 14th in the 1500m at the Stockholm grand prix in 3:44:85. He had endured injury problems but he was no more than an also-ran on the circuit. That year he and two compatriots accepted an offer to join the Bahrain military and improved their training condition. He continued to work with Boulami.

That same year Boulami's brother and protégé Brahim slashed two seconds from his world record in the steeplechase. A couple of weeks later he tested positive for EPO and his record was scratched. A two-year ban ensued but now Khalid could turn his attention to Ramzi. His rise was meteoric.

In 2004 he won a world indoor silver medal over 800m. But then, early in that Olympic summer, he stunned everyone by ending the four-year winning streak of El Guerrouj and lowering his personal best by nine seconds. In Athens, despite being one of the favourites, he mysteriously trailed in 11th in his semi-final. We hardly saw him again until the following year's world championships in Helsinki. He won gold at 1500m and 800m, unprecedented in the modern era. He almost embarrassed his competitors with his ease of victory. New-found ability in your mid-20s has the odour of North Shields fish quay on a warm day.

Bahrain rejoiced but he was hardly embraced by the sport. Infrequent appearances added to whispered suspicions and, though he took silver at the world championships of 2007 it was his first competition of the summer. He was, if nothing else, enigmatic. His Beijing gold was Bahrain's first Olympic success and he was richly rewarded and feted on his return.

The positive test was from a sample given at the Games but tested only in February. Last week at the London Marathon I was chatting to his agent, John Nubani, who looks after his training partner Abderrahim Goumri, too. We talked openly about Ramzi's image and he said that this season he was planning to race a lot more in Europe and they had done a deal for him to run at the London grand prix. Nubani was obviously not aware of his client's predicament.

Despite the Wada rules on athlete anonymity, the IOC on this occasion seemed happy to allow the early announcement of these positive tests for the EPO derivative Cera. The statement from the Bahrain NOC last week hardly disguised its embarrassment while ostensibly standing by its man.

The B sample for Ramzi will be tested in France this week with the athlete present. If the outcome is as expected, it will result in a significant ban and end of the dominance of an athlete whose performances have never given much enjoyment. It should also herald the hardening in the stance taken by the IAAF on two fronts. The route towards a flag of convenience taken for reward must be shut down altogether and tough questions need to be directed at Boulami. Athletes never work in isolation and I don't believe in coincidence when positive tests are the subject for debate. Cynicism can be a lazy standpoint but every now and then it is vindicated in such a way that one cannot help a little smile that says I told you so.