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Doping In Athletics

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USADA don't practice what they preach - They are all 'show' when it comes to big cases and therefore grab public kudos - They find reasons to let athletes off offences or in some cases give light penalties.
USADA (and formerly Tygart) loves to give the Americans a slap on the wrist and a 2nd or even 3rd chance and then they cry foul whenever something happens in a country like Russia (of course I'm not saying that the Russians are innocent).
 
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USADA (and formerly Tygart) loves to give the Americans a slap on the wrist and a 2nd or even 3rd chance and then they cry foul whenever something happens in a country like Russia (of course I'm not saying that the Russians are innocent).
USADA does manage an uneven enforcement profile but they don't have a limitless budget, either. As for complaining about Russia; they're a voice in the chorus. When the Russian state goes to the extremes they practiced to manage positives in testing it's pretty much a flawed criminal enterprise.
I can't imagine how much outfall there'd be if they tested pro tennis, basketball and all other big money sports for EPO rigorously. Financially some of the leagues are bigger than the governing bodies.
 
"A sub 2:06:00 time for a marathon (male), may not be possible without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. I recall, reading an article on the internet, which I can no longer source, in which a high-level European male marathoner, with a personal best time in the 2:07's, was under no illusion, although he couldn't prove it, that this is the case. There is no one better qualified, to provide opinions, expressed as facts, than those athletes who are participating at the highest level."
 
"A sub 2:06:00 time for a marathon (male), may not be possible without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. I recall, reading an article on the internet, which I can no longer source, in which a high-level European male marathoner, with a personal best time in the 2:07's, was under no illusion, although he couldn't prove it, that this is the case. There is no one better qualified, to provide opinions, expressed as facts, than those athletes who are participating at the highest level."


I would venture to say that even a sub 2:10 for a marathon is already in the grey area. The first person to run a sub 2:10 was Derek Clayton of Australia, all the way back in December 1967. He broke the record by almost 3 minutes, which was set just two years prior.

A 2:01:39 (official) marathon is ridiculous. The last 5-10 years has seen a lot of top Kenyan runners and coaches busted for doping. While Kipchoge is very talented, I don't see him running clean for that WR.
 
I would venture to say that even a sub 2:10 for a marathon is already in the grey area. The first person to run a sub 2:10 was Derek Clayton of Australia, all the way back in December 1967. He broke the record by almost 3 minutes, which was set just two years prior.

A 2:01:39 (official) marathon is ridiculous. The last 5-10 years has seen a lot of top Kenyan runners and coaches busted for doping. While Kipchoge is very talented, I don't see him running clean for that WR.

I would venture to say that Derek Clayton breaking 2:10 in 1967 suggests that the best possible time for a marathon clean is significantly faster. I am not saying that is 2:01:39, but come on; one only needs to look at the style and lifestyle of past greats like Clayton and Decastella, and see that it is possible for talented east africans, combining new age professionalism, to run the marathon a great deal faster.
 
One interesting item is that whereas track times improved significantly in the 1990s after the introduction of rHuEPO and were very fast from the mid-1990s until c:a 2005 allegedly slowing only after the introduction of new blood doping tests, there is no similar trend in marathon. In fact, there is no noticeable fast progression in the 1990s, and the improvement seems almost linear without blood doping availability / anti-doping testing having next-to-no effect on the results.
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Of course there are many explanatory factors such as that the marathon runners of the 1980s (de Castella, Lopes et al) could've been also the most talented runners of the era whereas marathon wasn't "trendy" in the 1990s and I can't even name that many marathon runners of the decade because the talent was elsewhere.
 
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Cheptegei also broke Bekele's 10,000 WR the other day, with a casual time of 26:11!

Women's 5,000 WR fell at the same meeting.
There's some discussion on running forums about the new/current use of Wavelights and how much of a role they play in pacing a runner to a record time, some think they're another form of cheating, some think they aren't all that helpful and are merely an amusing lightshow for the spectators. I don't know yet for sure, but with the Wavelights, the bouncy shoes, and PEDs records were bound to be broken. Nothing shocks or surprises me in the world of athletics anymore.
 
There's some discussion on running forums about the new/current use of Wavelights and how much of a role they play in pacing a runner to a record time, some think they're another form of cheating, some think they aren't all that helpful and are merely an amusing lightshow for the spectators. I don't know yet for sure, but with the Wavelights, the bouncy shoes, and PEDs records were bound to be broken. Nothing shocks or surprises me in the world of athletics anymore.

Well it has been a long time since those records have been broken. I'd say that it's more surprising that they lasted that long (as good as those records were).

One thing is for sure. This isn't the '90's. At least not yet.
 
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I'm not sure what you mean by the 90s?

So what do you make of these Wave Lights? It's my understanding they are turned off at the last 400m?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3ZSkjojnXA&ab_channel=FloTrack

Just compare the pacing between the Bekele's and Cheptegei's WR... It's crazy how even Cheptegei's splits were. Every lap was 62.9-63.0 seconds, on the dot. Even though he claimed that the lights didn't help him, I think they did... And yes, the last lap, they were turned off...

 
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Just compare the pacing between the Bekele's and Cheptegei's WR... It's crazy how even Cheptegei's splits were. Every lap was 62.9-63.0 seconds, on the dot. Even though he claimed that the lights didn't help him, I think they did... And yes, the last lap, they were turned off...

Thanks for the link, while I did watch vids of some of the races I wasn't aware of Cheptegei's actual 10k splits.

Split Bekele Cheptegei

1k 02:39.9 02:37.9
2k 02:35.8 02:37.1
3k 02:37.6 02:37.7
4k 02:37.0 02:37.1
5k 02:39.2 02:37.9
6k 02:35.5 02:37.3
7k 02:39.3 02:37.0
8k 02:40.7 02:37.4
9k 02:40.5 02:37.3
10k 02:32.4 02:34.3

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say yes, the lights must have definitely helped just a tiny tad. :tearsofjoy:
 
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