Three Russians, Including Two European Gold Medallists, Get Banned For Doping Thanks To Biological Passport System

Two Mid-D Runners And One Marathoner Go Down

by David Monti
(c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

(03-Jul) -- In a stunning development, three Russian athletes, two of whom had won European Championships gold medals in 2010 and 2011, were banned today by their federation for doping.  Incredibly, one was stripped of a gold medal handed to her when yet another athlete who had finished ahead of her had been previously disqualified for doping.

The athletes, middle distance runners Yevgeniya Zinurova and Svetlana Klyuka, and marathoner Nailya Yulamanova, were convicted of doping through the use of the biological passport program which, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency, "is based on the monitoring of selected biological variables which indirectly reveal the effects of doping."  As such, athletes do not have to be caught with banned substances in their systems, but rather can be convicted based on variations in blood and other values which can only be explained by doping.

Zinurova, 29, had won the 2011 European Indoor Championships 800m title in Paris, but was stripped of that title because her results will be deleted back to March 6, 2010.  That elevates Britain's Jenny Meadows to the gold medal position, Russia's Yulia Rusanova to silver, and France's Linda Marguet to bronze.  Zinurova will be banned through Sept. 13, 2013.

Yulamanova, 31, had originally finished second at the European Championships marathon in Barcelona in 2010, but was elevated to the gold medal position after Lithuania's Zivile Balciunaite was later disqualified for doping.  Russian officials said that Yulmanova's results have been deleted back through August 20, 2009, thus stripping her of that medal.  Italy's Anna Incerti now becomes the gold medalist, Ukraine's Tetyana Filonyuk now has the silver, and Sweden's Isabellah Andersson the bronze.  Yulamanova, who is banned through February 10, 2014, also loses her eighth place finish at the 2009 IAAF World Championships marathon, her 9th place finish at the 2010 Boston Marathon, her victory at the 2010 Shanghai Marathon, and her fifth place finish at the 2011 Amsterdam Marathon.

Klyuka, 33, who finished fourth in the Beijing Olympics at 800m and has a career best time of 1:56.64, has had her results deleted back through August 15, 2009, and is banned for two years through February 10, 2014.  According to the Tilastopaja Oy statistics website, her preliminary and semi-final performances at the 2009 IAAF World Championships will be stricken, as will her second place finish at the 2010 Russian championships and eighth place finish at the 2010 European Championships.

Athletes, like marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, have been calling for more extensive testing, including the use of the biological passport, for years.  Radcliffe often ran with a red ribbon pinned to her uniform to signify her support for blood testing.

"It is great that the blood passport scheme is starting to have effect and that hopefully there are more to come," said Radcliffe in an e-mail message sent to Race Results Weekly.  "The minority of cheating athletes will realise that the methods of detection and the deterrents will continue to improve in our efforts to clean up the sport we love."


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A Great Way To End A Great 2012 US Olympic Track & Field Trials - The Men's 1,500 Final

A Wide Open Affair Will Conclude The Mid-D/Distance Action At The 2012 US Trials

by LetsRun.com
July 1, 2012

In the end, the distance aficionados got what they wanted.

Some of the guys without the 'A' tried to be heroic and went for the standard of 3:35.50 but in the end the three best US 1,500 meter runners of recent years punched their tickets to London.

Three best you say? But what about xxxxx. We don't want to hear it.

1. Leo Manzano - The most consistent guy over recent years made the team. Manzano, who had been the top three at the US champs in the 1,500 since 2006 but never won, kicked past Matt Centrowitz for his much deserved first US title - a title that even surprised himself.

2. Matt Centrowitz- The most decorated guy internationally given his world championship bronze medal from last year made it as well. The savy tactician Centrowitz put himself in perfect position as he grabbed the lead just prior to the bell before losing it in the home stretch.

3 Andrew Wheating - The fastest 1,500 guy in the field and 2nd fastest American born runner in history at 3:30** made it as well. Wheating, who was only ** at the bell, used his patented late surge to make his second Olympic Team.

One other way to think of it is that two previous Olympians in the field as well as the one guy with a global championship medal punched their tickets to London.

The Race
In terms of how the race played out, it went almost exactly as we predicted - it would start fast but then things would really stagnate from 700 to 1100.We figured that the race would go out under 58 and it did thanks to a 57.6 by the Oregon Track Club's Jordan McNamara. After 400, former OTC member Will Leer went to the lead and we knew that a plan was in place.

To be truthful, Leer didn't do much with the lead as he only went through 700 in 1:42.65 (59.94 from 300 to 700) and 800 in 1:57.6 the runner's were running down the backstretch, it seemed as if the "A" was out the window. After the race (video also embedded below), Leer said he felt a little bit like Steve Prefontaine in Without Limits when he was expecting a fellow competitor to take the pace at a certain point but was wondering where he was as this afternoon Leer was expecting Army's John Mickowski to take over between 700 and 800 but Mickowski didn't get up to the lead until the next turn on 900.

"I had a momentary flash of Without Limits when Pre takes the lap with three laps to go and the guy is supposed to go around him and Pre (looks around and says) 'Come on, come on.' I felt that because John was supposed to come around between 700 and 800 and that didn't happen and I was like, 'Ah shit, I'm going to be hung out to dry here for the next 700 meters or until everyone blows by you,'" said Leer. "Here, the field is so, so good, you're going to have to have an A plus plus day to do it from the front."

When asked about his conservative second lap, Leer said that the plan was according to plan

The Plan - "Wind It Up With 700 To Go"
"That was kind of our plan - to go out relatively conservative because if we blow the doors off the first 800 meters, we'd have nothing left at the end to deal with it Centro, Manzano, Wheating and Manzano and David. Our plan was to get out, get it within reach, and then really wind it up with 700 to go and give ourselves an opportunity. Going out super hard - more likely than not - especially fighting the wind, you are just going to die," added Leer about the plan which is certainly easier formulated than implemented as slamming it home from 2 laps out isn't easy.

Coming down the homestretch the next to last time, the field was tightly bunched as everyone seemingly composed themselves for the last lap. At the bell (2:42.30), the top 11 of the 12 person field were all within 1.29 seconds of the lead. At the bell, it was the world championship bronze medallist Centrowitz who spurted to the lead over David Torrence - a lead that he wouldn't relinquish until the final 20 meters of the race.

On the backstretch after 1200 (2:55.9 for Centro), a bunch of guys in the back tried to make moves to put themselves in contention including noted come from behind runners Andrew Wheating and former UVA star Robby Andrews who had found themselves 7th at the bell (2:43.11) and 11th (2:43.49) respectively at the bell. Andrews move was the most pronounced ,move (in hindsight, the move may have been too big and too soon) but he couldn't quite get around the big Andrew Wheating as they started the final turn. Entering the turn, Andrews was slightly ahead of Wheating and probably could have cut him off if he really wanted to be dirty but instead backed off and tried to regroup when they hit the homestretch in 4th and 5th.

When the runners came off the final stretch, Centrowitz still had the lead and Manzano was starting to pull clear of Torrence as the leading duo of Centrowitz and Manzano were about to engage in a battle for the win. Two questions remained, "Who was going to win?" and, "Who was going to get third - Wheating or Andrews?"

In the last battle for the win, Manzano was really gritting and fighting whereas Centrowitz looked way more smooth but in the end it was the more pained Manzano who got the win in 3:35.75 after a 53.08 last lap to Centrowitz's 3:35.84 (53.55 last lap). Perhaps Centro isn't quite race sharp enough.

In the battle for third, Andrews had followed Wheating around the final turn.  In the homestretch, as they both blew by Torrence (who would fade to 6th), Andrews was unable to gain on Wheating. In the final 20 meters or so, Andrews faded a bit and was caught by the NCAA champ Andy Bayer who had started the last 100 meters in 7th but ended up 4th as he smartly saved ground by staying on the rail as many of the other runners went way wide.

Quick Take (QT) #1: Cream rises to the top. The best three 1,500 guys in terms of career accomplishments made the team. Six seconds from the finish line (3:29 into this race), the top five 1,500 guys in the field in our minds in Manzano, Centro, Wheating, Andrews and Torrence - were going 1-5. Actually, make that six if you count Jordan McNamara. If you held a time trial in Europe next week, we'd expect those six guys to go 1-6.

QT #2:   People talk a lot about positioning, tactics, boxes and what not but point #1 proves that the most fit and most talented guys normally come through. Supporting that point is the fact that the three guys with the three fastest last laps went 1-2-3 and the order of finish was in the order of their last lap splits. Manzano ran 53.08, Centro ran 53.55 and Wheating 53.58.

QT#3: Let's talk tactics now though. Robby Andrews is a big time talent and will be a force to reckoned with in the year's to come. Would he have made the team had he cut off Wheating with 200 to go? It's possible but we doubt it as Andrews last lap was 53.97 (although Andrews seemingly packed it in a bit with about 10 meters to go when it was clear he wasn't getting third) and Wheating's 53.58.

In our mind, what we think might have made a bigger difference for Andrews would be for him not to have been so far back at the bell or for him not to make such a big move between 250 and 200 to go. Just as if we were coaching Bernard Lagat in a re-run of the men's 5000, we'd tell him, "Bernard, you don't have to be in first with 80 meters to go - just at the finish line" we'd probably tell Andrews, "You don't have to be in third by 80 to go - just at the finish line."

Might a full season of college racing helped him get slightly better in tactics? We'll never know. He really shouldn't be too upset with himself though. He ran a credible race and was beaten by three studs.

QT #4: We thought the guys without the 'A' trying to set the pace would ultimately a) not fully commit to it and b) pay the price for trying.  That's pretty much what happened as Mickowski ended up next to last and Leer last (McNamara held up pretty well in 7th).

In terms of Leer's post-race small critique of Mickowski not taking the pace fully 700 or 800 into the race, we can understand why Leer made it but feel it was a bit off based. Setting the pace from 700 to 1100 is way harder than any point in the first 700. There is a reason afterwall why a rabbit in Europe will often get 3rd or 4th placed money in Europe - it's a hard job. Additionally, it's not like Leer did much on the lap he led as he basically ran a 60 - even if it was the plan to go conservative on that lap. Realistically,  to get the A, the guys needed to be 1:56 at a minimum before maybe floating a 45 for 300 before slamming it home.

Now, we certainly don't want people to slam Leer for his comments or slam us for trying to create controversy. You can see post-race interviews from both Leer and Mickowski below.

QT #5:  The NCAA champ Andy Bayer didn't go for the 'A' but making the Olympics wasn't a realistic option for him. And his finish was helped by the fact that some that did go for broke blew up big time, but he should be very proud of getting 4th after being the last guy into the final.



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