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Lead Stories: Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Note on the News: Honolulu Marathon Champ Disqualified

Posted June 24th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Drugs In Sports

News outlets in Honolulu are reporting that Ambese Tolossa, the Ethiopian marathoner who won last December’s Honolulu Marathon, has been disqualified for failing a drug test. The news broke after today’s release of IAAF News which listed Tolossa as having failed an in-competition doping control in Honolulu, and he had already been suspended by his federation for a two year period beginning last February.

Jimmy Muindi, who finished second, was declared the race winner. It was his sixth Honolulu Marathon title.

You can read various reports at these links:

http://starbulletin.com/breaking/breaking.php?id=7314

http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=8549843

http://www.kitv.com/news/16698675/detail.html

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Javornik Cleared of Doping Charge by Slovenian Federation

Posted June 20th, 2008 at 8:28 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Drugs In Sports

The Slovenian Athletics Federation (AZS) cleared distance runner Helena Javornik of doping charges despite two recent positive tests showing the presence of EPO.

“Helena Javornik did not commit a doping offense,” Tadej Malovrh, the head of the federation’s anti-doping commission said in a statement released early this morning after a four-and-a-half hour hearing concluded.

“This is what I was expecting,” Javornik, 42, the national record holder in all events from the mile to the marathon, told Slovenian national television. “Because I’ve never taken anything illegal.”
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Chepkemei Sanctioned for Doping Violation

Posted February 26th, 2008 at 9:30 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Drugs In Sports

Four-time IAAF World Half-Marathon medalist Susan Chepkemei has been sanctioned for a doping violation, the IAAF reported yesterday. In an out-of-competition test in Kenya last September, Chepkemei’s sample returned a positive result for Salbutamol, a medication commonly prescribed for breathing problems, usually asthma.

Indeed, according to Valentijn Trouw of Global Sports Communications, the Dutch management firm which represents Chepkemei, the medication was given to their athlete by a doctor in a Nairobi hospital where Chepkemei had presented herself for treatment.

“Beginning of September Susan Chepkemei had a severe pneumonia,” Trouw said in a written statement. “After investigation in the hospital in Nairobi, she was told by the doctor to take a medicine (which contained the substance Salbutamol). Susan was convinced the doctor who gave her the prescription knew she was an international top athlete and she was given a medicine that didn’t contain any substance which is prohibited according to the doping list. She took the medicine that evening.”
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China Attends World Conference on Doping

Posted November 16th, 2007 at 11:00 AM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Olympics, Drugs In Sports

A Chinese delegation is in Madrid to attend the third World Conference on Doping.

Led by Duan Shijie, vice-minister of the General Administration of Sport, the delegation is comprised of officials from the aforesaid administration, the China Anti-doping Agency, the Chinese Olympic Committee, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation.

According to Duan, he will speak at Friday’s session on China’s anti-doping efforts and the measures to be taken during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: SummerOlympian.com

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China Anti-Doping Agency Unveiled to Conduct Olympic Drug Tests

Posted November 12th, 2007 at 4:40 PM by J. R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Olympics, Drugs In Sports

The China Anti-Doping Agency was officially unveiled in Beijing on Monday.

Duan Shijie, Vice-Minister of the General Administration of Sport and Executive Vice-President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), and Du Lijun, Director of the agency, attended the inaugural ceremony at the China Olympic Sports Center.

Approved by the office of the State Commission for Public Service Structure and Establishment Administration, the agency has a staff of 60, comprising the people from the Institute of Sports Medicine under the General Administration of Sport and the Anti-Doping Commission of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: SummerOlympian.com

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IAAF Reports No Positive Drug Tests During Osaka

Posted September 21st, 2007 at 9:45 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The International Association of Athletics Federations reported today that there were no positive drug test results stemming from a massive testing program carried out during their recently concluded World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan. However, there was one positive result from an out-of-competition test executed at a team training camp.

“I am pleased to report that the testing programme in Osaka was the largest ever conducted by the IAAF with even more tests collected than we had initially planned,” said IAAF president Lamine Diack in a statement circulated to the media. “I can confirm that we have found only one positive case from the testing in Japan.”
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Kiplagat not invited to Friehofer’s Run for Women after protesting event’s lack of drug testing

Posted May 31st, 2007 at 8:15 AM by Courtney Albon

Section: News & Results, Drugs In Sports

Saturday’s Friehofer’s Run for Women in Albany, NY will once again feature accomplished professionals, such as defending champion Benita Johnson, 2006 runner-up Natalya Berkut, and the controversial winner from 2005, Asmae Leghzaoui.

However, there is a noticeable hole in the lineup as Lornah Kiplagat, last year’s third place finisher, will not be competing.

Kiplagat was not contacted by officials of the race to run this year. Kiplagat has participated in two protests against the race’s policy that does not require runner’s to be tested for performance enhancing drugs and asserts that officials did not follow through with their promise to begin enforcing such screenings.

Several runners joined Kiplagat to protest the 2005 race because Asmae Leghzaoui, the eventually winner, was allowed to compete despite receiving a two year suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs.
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Doping ban toughened for European Championships

Posted March 8th, 2007 at 9:00 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Drugs In Sports

European athletes returning from a two-year doping ban will have to wait an additional two years before they’re allowed to compete at their continental championships, European Athletics, the sports’ governing body in Europe announced.

At its meeting after the conclusion of the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England, the European Athletics Council voted to impose a minimum two-year period of ineligibility from all European Championships beginning on the day a suspended athlete is cleared to compete by the IAAF after a doping suspension.
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Detection and Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Posted November 19th, 2006 at 7:00 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Drugs In Sports

World records in sports are broken by better athletes, better training methods, better nutrition or new drugs. Drugs appear to be the cause of many recent records in sports requiring strength and speed. Many bicycle racers know that some drugs that make them better riders can’t be detected by testing techniques that are available today.

A recent study shows that laboratories have no definitive test to discover athletes who take erythropoietin (EPO), a drug to boost their red blood cell counts (Haematologica, August, 2006). Athletes have found that taking very low doses of EPO daily will raise red blood cell counts, and will not give test results high enough to show that they are taking extra EPO.

The primary limiting factor to how fast a person can ride a bicycle over long distances is the time it takes to move oxygen from the lungs into the muscles. So anything that increases oxygen transport from the lungs into the bloodstream, or carries more oxygen in the bloodstream, or moves oxygen faster from the blood into muscles will make a person a faster bicycle racer. Since more than 95 percent of the oxygen in the bloodstream is carried by hemoglobin in red blood cells, anything that increases the concentration of red blood cells will help a racer ride faster. Read the rest of this entry »

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How does testosterone and/or EPO affect athletes?

Posted November 16th, 2006 at 10:30 AM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Health & Fitness, Drugs In Sports

After Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was alleged to have taken testosterone, several physicians were widely quoted in the media stating that taking testosterone for one day cannot improve performance. They are wrong. After multiple Olympic gold medal winning sprinter Marion Jones tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO), many physicians stated that EPO doesn’t help sprinters. They are also wrong. (She was cleared because her second sample tested negative.)

Such lack of knowledge reminds me of the early 1970s, when the East Germans and Russians won just about every sports event that required strength. Many American physicians were widely quoted as saying that synthetic testosterone does not make athletes stronger. The athletes thought that these physicians were misguided because soon after starting to take synthetic male hormones, they could observe spectacular improvements in their own performances. Athletes train by taking a hard workout that damages muscles, feeling sore on the next day, than going easier until the soreness diminishes, and then going hard again. As soon as an athlete starts to take anabolic steroids, he notices that he recovers much faster than before, so he can do more intense training which makes him a better athlete. Read the rest of this entry »

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