Alene Reta at Drake

The road races were a joke. I emailed them 5 times to get a 32:30 woman into the race and NEVER received a response. After viewing the results I now know why. They were not interested in any athletes that weren't East African.

katie mcgregor and melissa johnson-white were in, as were a few russians.

reta also ran and won the 6k after being 4th in the half marathon. the 10k and half marathon started at 8 a.m. and the 6k was at 10 a.m. so reta and several others who were top 15 in the 10k or half marathon also ran the 6k.

Melissa Johnson White was NOT an elite athlete. She entered with the masses as she also could not get a returned phone call. I talked to Kevin Hanson after seeing her name in the results.

Let's hope that Drake and Hy Vee scrap the road race elite prize money next year and redirect to the track meet. It's a travesty that Alene Reta comes out of the weekend ahead of some athletes with superlative track performances.

So can we assume there was no drug testing?

so he ran 1:02:xx, then less than an hour later won a race that offered $2000 to the winner (meaning it HAD to have some quality guys)??? this is ridiculous, somebody please test this douchetard

douglas burke wrote:

reta also ran and won the 6k after being 4th in the half marathon. the 10k and half marathon started at 8 a.m. and the 6k was at 10 a.m. so reta and several others who were top 15 in the 10k or half marathon also ran the 6k.

Blech. RD should have refused him entry.

anonymouse trolly sockpuppet wrote:

so he ran 1:02:xx, then less than an hour later won a race that offered $2000 to the winner (meaning it HAD to have some quality guys)??? this is ridiculous, somebody please test this douchetard

What's so unbelievable about running 2 races in less than an hour? That's no reason to be so angry and suspicious. What were his times in both races? And what are his personal bests?

hxhsjsj wrote:

And what are his personal bests?

What are his CLEAN personal bests is the real question.

Alene Reta is Alene Emere and is several other names he uses to sneak into races. That is why it's unbelieveable.

July 08, 2005

Running under false name, Alene Emere is disqualified from Peachtree

by David Monti

(c) 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission

(07-Jul) At the conclusion of last Monday's Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia, there was an unfamiliar name high up in the results: Amara Leta. Leta, listed as a 24-year-old from Ethiopia, finished sixth in 28:43, earning $1,500.

Two days later, an anonymous posting on the LetsRun.com message board identifed Leta as Alene Emere, the Ethiopian who had run for a Japanese corporate team until he was suspended for a doping infraction late in 2001, the same year he finished second at Peachtree.

Simultaneously, the mysterious Leta was identified to RRW via e-mail by U.S. agent, Hussein Makke, as a Sudanese athlete. The athlete, whom Makke did not represent, was coming to Makke's West Chester, Pennsylvania, office for a meeting. At that meeting, Makke asked him to produce his passport, but the athlete was reluctant to do so, claiming it was missing. Makke's assistant, Kim Saddic, told Makke that she recognized Leta as Emere. He finally turned over his passport, and Makke confirmed Saddic's observation.

Makke called Liz Unislawski at the Atlanta Track Club, organizers of the Peachtree Race, to let her know of his discovery. The A.T.C. had previously decided not to invite Emere to the event, and he apparantly came to Atlanta at his own expense, supplied a different name, and entered the race clandestinely. Upon getting the news that Amere had misrepresented himself, the A.T.C. disqualified him.

"We have DQed him from our race and asked his prize money be returned," said Unislawski in an e-mail to RRW. "The results will be adjusted."

Before being suspended, Emere had a very strong year in 2001. He won the Japanese national championships at both 5,000m and 10,000m (foreign runners representing Japanese corporate teams are allowed to compete), running 13:26.33 and 27:29.53, respectively. On the U.S. road circuit, he was second at Peachtree, third at the Utica Boilermaker, and first at the Crazy 8's 8K. He is scheduled to run at Crazy 8's on 16-Jul according to a press release recently sent by the event.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1751714&page=0#ixzz2SBVZILCT

I say shame on Drake for allowing so many internationals elites into their field, if they should have allowed any at all. How is this good for the sport-- all the generous prize purse going to a bunch of 3rd tier Africans no one cares about? How can Hy-Vee be pleased with where their money went? This is money that could have gone towards bringing in and supporting a solid American field, who would have been grateful and positively promoted the event. Instead, they have a bunch of shady Africans, probably most of whom speak little to no English to have a positive media presence. These races is a prime example of why so many races/sponsors have dropped or cut the prize purses, cause what's the point of feeding bus loads of Africans who give nothing back to the sport?

Besides Alene, his sister was in the women's field. Then, the 1st female in the HM is the girlfriend (or ex?) of the Ethiopian who tested positive at NYC in 2011. If he wasn't serving a drug ban, you can bet he would have been there too. There's another woman in the top 7 who's rumored to use EPO. There's also Bernard Lagat's sister, who dropped a lot of time the past 2 years, after being mediocre for a long time before that. Was there drug testing? Why are there so few Americans in the fields (who surely weren't all racing at Stanford, and no other major conflicting races this weekend)?

where theres smoke is fire wrote:

This is money that could have gone towards bringing in and supporting a solid American field, who would have been grateful and positively promoted the event.

Oh really? How would they have done that?

survey says wrote:

where theres smoke is fire wrote:

This is money that could have gone towards bringing in and supporting a solid American field, who would have been grateful and positively promoted the event.

Oh really? How would they have done that?

How would who have done what?

gee, I don't know, maybe the fact that he ran less than a minute from his PB, then turned around and won a race that had 2 13:30's guys go 2-3, maybe that's why i'm pissed, because this douchtard does this crap all the time and nobody has the balls to do anything about it. so that makes about 5 potential or former dopers in these races. pathetic.

hxhsjsj wrote:

What's so unbelievable about running 2 races in less than an hour? That's no reason to be so angry and suspicious. What were his times in both races? And what are his personal bests?

Has anyone contacted the people at Drake to point out their mistake, and to find out if they even care?

searcher of information wrote:

gee, I don't know, maybe the fact that he ran less than a minute from his PB, then turned around and won a race that had 2 13:30's guys go 2-3, maybe that's why i'm pissed, because this douchtard does this crap all the time and nobody has the balls to do anything about it. so that makes about 5 potential or former dopers in these races. pathetic.

hxhsjsj wrote:

What's so unbelievable about running 2 races in less than an hour? That's no reason to be so angry and suspicious. What were his times in both races? And what are his personal bests?

Isn't a minute off of half marathon pace like tempo pace? That shouldn't be too stressful. What was the time in the 2nd race? Just because he beat two 13:30 guys is insignificant unless he won the race in less than 13:30. Are those 13:30 guys even in 13:30 shape?

I don't know much about this situation, but it just seems like you haven't thought this through very well.

djdudj wrote:

Isn't a minute off of half marathon pace like tempo pace? That shouldn't be too stressful. What was the time in the 2nd race? Just because he beat two 13:30 guys is insignificant unless he won the race in less than 13:30. Are those 13:30 guys even in 13:30 shape?

I don't know much about this situation, but it just seems like you haven't thought this through very well.

Not a minute per mile. One minute total. He ran 1:02 for the half marathon (1:01 personal best) and then came back to win another race over a solid field. With his history, it doesn't pass the smell test.

This guy is a tool, but he's very successful. He gets away with it because most people don't care. More attention is paid to track drug testing and hardly any is paid to testing for road races.

I think i know exactly who didn't think this one through, very well or otherwise. fyi, tempo pace, according to Mr Vigil, is roughly the pace one can hold for about 75min, so neither 1/2 mara nor 1min/mi slower corresponds to this. thanks for playing, back to school, better luck next time.

djdudj wrote:

Isn't a minute off of half marathon pace like tempo pace? That shouldn't be too stressful...... I don't know much about this situation, but it just seems like you haven't thought this through very well.

the time isn't the issue, it's the fact that he is a cheat who has been caught in the past and has been running road races with different names to avoid being kicked out, which I think is also cheating, say what you will.

If the time was an issue, the course is very hilly and a 62 is blazing on it.