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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
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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World Records and Doping Suspicions
Posted June 10th, 2008 at 10:00 AM by Jesse Squire
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Drugs In Sports
We get a fantastic world record in the 100 meters, and one of the first questions is about drugs. From the New York Times:
When Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a world record of 9.72 seconds at 100 meters Saturday night, two questions became urgent:
Was the supporting tailwind legal?
Was Bolt himself legal?
Track and field has become so compromised by doping that any startling performance brings immediate suspicion. Even before the race at the Reebok Grand Prix meet on Randall’s Island, Bolt and his top challenger, the 2007 world champion Tyson Gay, faced inevitable questions from reporters about performance-enhancing drugs. The pre-race inquiries have become as routine as the postrace drug screens.
The purists and the pollyannas alike bemoan this state of affairs. And while the comedians and cartoonists have (rightly) turned their doping jokes towards baseball instead of track, they still don’t get the same treatment. Manny Ramirez smacked his 500th career home run this week and did not have to answer these kind of questions.
Will track ever be rid of this suspicion? I say not any time soon, and maybe never.
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Slovenian Federation Upholds Ceplak Doping Ban
Posted March 27th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Bob Ramsak
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Drugs In Sports
The Slovenian Athletics Federation (AZS) has upheld a two-year doping ban for Olympic 800m bronze medalist Jolanda Ceplak.
“It was a difficult decision to reach, but we have concluded that Jolanda Ceplak is guilty,” said Slavko Cerne, the president of the federation’s Disciplinary Commission after a seven-hour session that didn’t conclude until after midnight Thursday.
The 31-year-old Ceplak, the world indoor record holder in the 800m, tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO at an out-of-competition test in Monte Carlo on June 18, 2007. The “B” sample test confirmed the A sample finding, resulting in a provisional suspension by the sport’s international governing body, the IAAF, on July 26, 2007.
Citing illness, Ceplak was not present at the hearing, which was held behind closed doors due to “the personal and sensitive nature of some of topics” being discussed. Cerne stressed that the hearing could have been rescheduled in order for Ceplak to attend, but her attorney declined making that request.
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Billiards Player Suspended for Doping
Posted March 18th, 2008 at 9:15 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Drugs In Sports
While traditional Olympic sports like athletics and cycling tend to draw the headlines in doping cases, the sport of billiards finds itself in that unenviable position today.
The Associated Press reported this morning that Germany’s billiards champion, Axel Buescher, has tested positive for an EPO masking agent. According to the German Billiard Union, Buescher’s positive test occurred at the German championships last November where he won the carom billiards title.
In a familiar refrain, Buescher said the masking agent was an ingredient in a prescription medication for which he had not received a medical waiver. He has been suspended for one year after he passed on his right to have his “B” sample tested.
Editor’s Note: A deeper question may be, what possible advantage can a billiards champion derive from taking EPO? In general, it seems incredibly sad that drug testing would even be necessary in a sport like billiards. However, under today’s dark cloud of drugs in sport, apparently individuals in all sports and hobbies will do just about anything for a potential advantage over the competition.
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Track & Field: Weekly Preview
Posted January 26th, 2008 at 10:30 AM by Bob Ramsak
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
With three major international invitationals set for this weekend –Saturday’s Reebok Boston Indoor Games, Saturday’s Norwich Union International in Glasgow, and the Russian Winter meet in Moscow on Sunday– TPR begins its peak-season weekly previews. Some of the expected key highlights:
In the Sprints…
Thus far in 2008 the major news in the sprints has been off the track, beginning with the New Year’s Day announcement by the US Anti-Doping Agency that Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin would have to sit out a four-year ban. (How’s that for setting the tone for the year?) Gatlin is appealing the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. [For a recent interview Gatlin gave Reuters, please click here]
The most solid field of the weekend will be in Boston, where reigning world indoor champion Leonard Scott makes his ‘08 debut. Reigning US indoor champion DaBryan Blanton, and Leroy Dixon [Pictured], a 400m relay gold medallist last summer in Osaka, are also in the field.
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‘Personal Trainer’ and ‘Athletic Trainer’ are
NOT the Same Thing
Posted January 7th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Jeremy Sussman
Section: News & Results, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise, Drugs In Sports
NOTE: The following statement was released to major sports, health and fitness publications by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA). This press release is NOT in reference to any article, editorial, or other content published by TheFinalSprint.com or the TFS Media Network. Conversely, it is intended as a universal statement, clarification and request to the media at large on behalf of the NATA membership.
NATA has followed news of Roger Clemens’ admittance this week to receiving B12 and lidocaine from personal trainer Brian McNamee. NATA has read this information with interest and caution since some media have incorrectly reported that Brian McNamee is an athletic trainer.
McNamee is not, nor has he ever been an athletic trainer, as confirmed by NATA and Board of Certification (BOC) records and the New York Yankees. He is in fact a PERSONAL TRAINER and should be referred to as such and not as a “TRAINER” which can add to reader confusion. You should be aware that the term “athletic trainer” is a title-protected term by statute in 43 states.
In your coverage of this very timely sports and health issue, we appreciate any references to McNamee to be accurate. The original Mitchell Report correctly identifies McNamee as a personal trainer, and we hope media will continue to refer to him by his correct profession - PERSONAL training. An accurate description of McNamee is vitally important to the reputation and credibility of the 35,000 athletic trainers working with sports medicine patients and clients.
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Podcast 106: CHRIS LEAR, Author of Running with the Buffaloes [Part 1 of 2]
Posted December 1st, 2007 at 1:45 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Books, Track & Field, Olympics, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts, Drugs In Sports, College
Episode 106 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, features the first installment in a two-part series of interviews with CHRIS LEAR, author of the cult-favorite running books Running With the Buffaloes and Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile. TheFinalSprint.com Assistant Editor Jimmie R. Markham joins us for the interview.
Lear, a 4:09 high-school miler and an All-American at Princeton, talks about his early running career, his post-collegiate career, his inspiration for writing his running books and his business career.
Now pursuing his MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lear also discusses how he has been approached about selling the movie rights to Running With the Buffaloes and how the book lends itself to the big screen.
Download the podcast to hear Lear discuss these topics, as well, as doping, American distance runners and their place in the world running scene, the grassroots level resurgence of American distance running, and his advice for young runners on how to succeed in both endeavors.
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Hosts: Adam Jacobs, Jimmie Markham | Guest:Chris Lear
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 18.1 MB | Length: 26:25 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Long Live Running!
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Athletes on Performance- Enhancing Drugs Risk Harming Their Children
Posted November 30th, 2007 at 4:10 PM by Jamal Walker
Section: News & Results, Nutrition, Supplements, Health & Fitness, Drugs In Sports
Some people think that we should let athletes take performance- enhancing drugs because they think that these athletes can only harm themselves and do not harm others. We already know that anabolic steroids can cause liver damage, heart attacks and strokes, and that growth hormone causes heart attacks by causing the heart muscle to outgrow its blood supply. Now a two-year study of former East German athletes shows that athletes who take these drugs can harm their children.
In the 1970s and 80s, almost all government sponsored East German athletes were forced to take anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. A study of 69 children of 52 of these athletes showed that seven had birth defects and four
were mentally retarded, an unusually high incidence for a group of this size. More than 25 percent had allergies and 23 percent had
asthma. The women suffered 32 times the normal incidence of miscarriage and stillbirth, 25 percent suffered cancer and 61 percent had therapy for mental disorders. The study was conducted by Dr. Giselher Spitzer at Humbolt University in Germany.
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Marion Jones’s Letter to Friends and Family
Posted November 24th, 2007 at 4:30 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports
Dear family and close friends,
I hope this letter finds all of you well. I know some of you must be wondering where the pictures are that I so often attach to my emails. Unfortunately, this is a much different type of letter. I write this letter to all of you for a few reasons.
The first is simply because I love you all. Some things will be happening in the next week that I want you all to know about from me FIRST. You deserve this because you have been there for me from the very beginning. You have supported me throughout the many struggles that I have had in my life and continue to do so to this day. You deserve to hear about Marion from Marion and not from the USA Today or CNN.
The second reason is because I finally want to shed much baggage that has been tearing me down for a long time. I want to share with you all my humanness. The fact that I have made mistakes in my life, made bad decisions, and have carried a great amount of pain and hurt throughout my life.
Read the rest of this entry »
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- Podcast 94: PETER GILMORE on the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and Much More!
Episode sponsored by: Bill Rodgers Sportswear
After 21 years BR Sportswear is closing out their line of high -quality running apparel. Visit shopfest.com to take advantage of an unprecedented 50% discount on all in-stock items!
Episode 94 of The Final Sprint Podcast features my interview with U.S. Olympic Marathon hopeful PETER GILMORE.
In the interview, Peter talks […] - Podcast 80: Team USA standout MATT TEGENKAMP discusses his career year, pacemakers and more!
Episode sponsored by: Bill Rodgers Sportswear
After 21 years BR Sportswear is closing out their line of high -quality running apparel. Visit shopfest.com to take advantage of an unprecedented 50% discount on all in-stock items!
Episode 80 of The Final Sprint Podcast; the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my interview with MATT […] - World records likely in Osaka?
The Osaka track is extremely fast, as evidenced by Jeremy Wariner’s early-season 44.02 back on May 5th, 2007 at the Osaka Grand Prix. That bodes well for the sprints, obviously, which means that most of the distance records are probably safe. Hard tracks are best for sprinting, while soft tracks are best for distance […]
- World record holder’s future depends on fast-approaching hearings
The arbitration hearing for Olympic Gold Medalist and world record holder Justin Gatlin is scheduled for July 30-31 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Based on lab results received in April 2006 at the Kansas Relays, Gatlin tested positive for testosterone or its precursors, Gatlin faces a possible eight year suspension. Such a long suspension could potentially keep him […] - Kiplagat not invited to Friehofer’s Run for Women after protesting event’s lack of drug testing
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 […] - Podcast 25: Interview with sprinter Sanya Richards
I had the pleasure of being joined by 2004 4×400 Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards for Episode 25 of The Final Sprint Podcast.
Sanya is coming off of an incredible 2006; a year where she graduated from the University of Texas, was undefeated in 13 finals in the 400m, won a share of the IAAF Golden […] - Gatlin to challenge his eight-year suspension
Olympic champion Justin Gatlin will look to challenge his eight year suspension in an upcoming arbitration hearing.
The USADA suspended Gatlin last year after he tested positive for testosterone and its precursors. Although, testosterone is naturally occurring, Gatlin’s levels were considered well beyond that of an average person and therefore deemed to be from a […] - Lyubov Ivanova banned from sport after positive steroid test
Lyubov Ivanova, the 3000m steeplechase champion from Russia, has received a two-year suspension for using performance enhancing drugs.
The elite runner tested positive for steroids at the World Athletics Final in September.
Ivanova finished in fourth place at the European championships in Sweden and at the IAAF finale in Stuttgart.
Research source and for more information: […] - 2006 Grandma’s Marathon champion disqualified and banned for doping
Six months after the completetion of the Grandma’s Marathon, women’s champion, Halina Karnatsevich, has been disqualified for failing her post-race drug test.
The race was originally held on July 17th in Duluth, Minnesota.
Officials have now declared Ukrainian Svetlana Nekhorosh the winner. Nekhorosh will now also receive the $8,000 prize purse.Race director, Scott […]
- Other stories of interest: December 17, 2006
From time to time TFS will try and highlight other stories, usually news related, that you might find of interest:
Berlin Marathon 2007 Registration Begins — B.M. Press Release
Lagat Set for 2007 Indoor Start in UK — IAAF
Lauryn Williams: Visa’s Humanitarian Athlete of Year — Runner’s Web
Scientists racing to catch gene-doping athletes – ESPN
Is Marathoning […]
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On July 19, 2008
Scott Jones said:
one more thing, in case you get a chance to respond, my email is scottjonesemail@yahoo.com.