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Lead Stories: Sunday, November 23, 2008

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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2008 Track & Field Previews & Predictions: Men’s Sprints

Posted January 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, TFS News Briefs

Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell will continue their 100m rivalry in 2008. Powell has yet to prove that he has the head game to win a big meet, so that leaves the gold medal in Beijing to Gay unless Powell can work past that deficiency. One of the two should break Powell’s world record of 9.74 in 2008. Bahamanian Derrick Atkins won’t be as lucky in Beijing as he was in Osaka when he snuck past Powell for the silver. The best he can hope for is bronze. Walter Dix will win the NCAA title and will again be too tired to make much of a difference at Beijing. He will make the finals but will not medal. Wallace Spearmon and Samuel Francis broke the 10 second barrier in 2007 and they should both improve in 2008. Spearmon is a 200m specialist, so look for him to focus on that event in this Olympic year. Look for Olusoji Fasuba and Francis Obikwelu to break 10 seconds if they can stay healthy.
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Studies: Caffeine can help athletes in both endurance and sprinting events

Posted March 29th, 2007 at 4:00 PM by Martha Jones

Section: Nutrition, Supplements

It has been established for more than 50 years that caffeine helps you exercise longer in events that require endurance.

Recently researchers at Christ Church University in Canterbury, UK, showed that caffeine also helps you in much shorter events. Trained cyclists raced one kilometer (0.6 mile) on three times, in random order, after taking 5 mg of caffeine, taking a placebo, or taking nothing.

Their speed, mean power and peak power were more than three percent higher after taking caffeine (Journal of Sports Sciences, November 2006).
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