in international junior and senior meets. Three weeks after the World Youth Championships he finished fifteenth in 3000 m steeplechase at the 2005 World Championships. During the 2005–2006 indoor season he won a silver medal at the 2006 Asian Athletics Championships in Pattaya and finished eleventh at the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow, both in the 3000 metres distance as the 3000 metres steeplechase is not contested on indoor arenas. He opened the 2006 outdoor season by finishing nineteenth in the junior race at the 2006 World Cross Country Championships, helping the Bahraini team to a fifth place in the team competition. At the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, Taher won the silver medal in the steeplechase race. Having crossed the last water jump aside Willy Komen of Kenya, Komen sprinted away on the last stretch to take the gold medal in a new championship record of 8:14.00 minutes. Taher finished in 8:16.64. Meanwhile, in the same city, the age manipulation case was brought forth at the IAAF Council meeting. The investigation had not yet concluded, but it was reported that there was "strong suspicion of age manipulation". The case had been brought to government level in Kenya as IAAF president Lamine Diack had discussed the issue the previous month with Maina Kamanda, Kenyan Minister for Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services. Cases had also been opened for two other Bahraini athletes born in Kenya, Belal Mansoor Ali and Aadam Ismaeel Khamis. In addition the Council meeting reported on a similar case, involving Kenyan long-distance runner Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa, who was found to compete with a falsified age in the junior race at the 2006 World Cross Country Championships, the same thing for which Taher was investigated. Towards the end of the season he finished tenth in 3000 m steeplechase at the 2006 World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, in which he was entitled to run after collecting points during certain designated meets throughout the season. He was then selected to represent Asia at the 2006 World Cup, a meet which gathers one competitor from each continent in each event, and finished eighth in the 3000 metres. His position in Asian steeplechase was consolidated as he won the gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. The reigning world champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen, another Kenyan who changed nationality to Qatar, was absent from the Asian Games due to