Taoufik Makhloufi NOT Competing in Moscow

How come the Kenyans were hurt for the final? Bad recovery from the semis? Picked up a niggle? Damn it, I wanted to see Asbel run away to Gold, Silas at his heels, Centrowitz plugging hard for bronze.

THIS!!!nobody ever brings this up. it's a FACT yo!LEO got SILVER people!!!and a buzzcut, sunglasses-wearing Norwegian guy with his BALLS FALLING OUT of his speedsuit almost got up for a medal in the last 100m!!!

killarney wrote:

The 2012 final was just that much weaker

Leo got silver because Makhloufi obliterated the rest of the field that tried to go with him. That just doesn't happen at 300 meters out in the 1500. You have guys that make moves and are able to hang on for the win, but you don't have people who are able to break a world class field and seal a win all in the first 150 meters of a 300 meter kick. The race was over before the home stretch.

What you have in kickers' races with world class fields is what you saw in the 10,000. Farah pushing flat out with a pack of contenders hanging on. The pack is either able to hang on the whole way, in which the race is basically won by the right timing of the kick, or the pack isn't able to sustain the speed down the home stretch. You don't see packs fall apart just halfway through a kick.

THAT IS A BEAUTIFUL POST. MAK DADDY IS ONE OF THE MOST OBVIOUS DOPER.

Tell that to Morceli regarding the 1996 Olympic 1500m Final. It is true that ElG fell, and this possibly gave Morceli a slight jump on the field (and more importantly, eliminated his top rival), but Morceli had virtually sealed the victory with 300m to go. The point is, it is NOT unprecedented.

800 dude wrote:

That just doesn't happen at 300 meters out in the 1500.

That has happened many times in the 1500...

Willis is nursing an injury.

I maintain, that by 2016, Leo Manzano will be the gold medalist for the London 1500.

yyy wrote:

Willis is nursing an injury.

Makhloufi is nursing a viral illness.

JWIAF, this a great thread with sound, logical responses on your part. I agree with you.

Keep it up.

800 dude wrote:

That just doesn't happen at 300 meters out in the 1500.

Ummmm....... ever heard of el Guerrouj?

TrackCoach wrote:

SPMBLNPF wrote:

Many of you have convicted Makhloufi because you just KNOW that he is cheating. You just KNOW it. Of course it is largely due to the fact that you dislike him at some visceral level. Even if Makhloufi were competing in Moscow, you'd still say he is cheating, so why would this alter the equation one iota? No matter what he does, you'd still say he was using PEDs, so don't act like this news changes anything for you.

Read the post by Fam.

What post by Fam? (link?)

I don't know either way.

I just happen to re-watch the race a few hours ago after youtube auto suggested it to me.

Mak's move with 300 to go...was not as dramatic as Webb's failed move was. And Mak seemed to gain with 120, 100 to go.

So the move is dominant, but not quite as dramatic as it has been made out to be by some.

The thing that is literally remarkable...even for a 3:35ish race...Is, you watch the replay and everyone behind him in the last 100 is gritting their kick, mouth breathing clearly.

Mak is just running it through...after all the burst and dig over 300 meters...like it is another 80% 300 meter interval.

They cut back to him shortly after the finish...and he completely closes his mouth...and just nose breathes easily.

He must have been perfectly peaked.

That said...as the commentators rightfully said...he never should have been in the race in the first place.

1. He was stupidly entered by his country in the 800.

2. Olympic rules say you must give a fair effort in a heat or qualifier, or you are DQ'd. Wasn't there a DQ for that in like shuttlecock or something?

3. When he dropped out of the 800...he limped and grabbed his asz and hamstring, and walked for a long time holding his asz and hamstring in front of 80,000 people and 1 billion people watching on television.

4. Then the doctor's note he got for dropping out was he had a "migraine."

Unless his brain is in his asz, I don't know how that works. Oh wait, we have to make this lie believable.

He could have just dropped out and walked away and given the migraine excuse later.

The asz grab and limp was just total fakery. And if the guy's coach, federation, country, will tell him to cheat that way...

He didn't pass anyone's sniff test.

Not the BBC announcer. Not the Canadian announcer. Not the Olympic feed announcer.

Not the 80,000 people in the stadium who went silent and did not really cheer him as they did in other winners.

You could say he looked like a smirking tool and all the other comments like that -- but I might just say those are racist, xenophobic comments. The guy just looks how he looks.

Now let's compare this with Rudisha destroying the 800 field.

People say that he ran away with the race from the gun, just took off and left the field behind.

Well, he did tell his Kenyan compatriot not to go with him.

But if you rewatch the race, even tho his 400 split was hot, take a look at him at 250 meters in. He's striding comfortably. 300 meters in, he's relaxed and loping a little. 400 meters, same. He starts his push at about 360 meters to go...and then he just obliterates the field with a 340meter+ drive.

Because of his previous years and record, and the way the race unfolded, he destroyed the field and it looked completely believable.

With Mak, I don't know, that is what I leave the authorities up to find out.

Let's say he was clean.

The clear cheating in the 800 heats and withdrawal from the 800 all-together, should have DQ'd him from further participation in the Games, and his federation, coaches and country would have learned a hard lesson. The IOC has done it before.

As for him passing drug testing? They're getting better and better at it, and we know they have his samples for a good long time and will be testing and retesting and retesting. If he was dirty, he will likely be caught.

A few more notes...

One would think, I mean it is only logical, that if a 1500m runner was training to make a move and kick from 300m out...that he -- in the Olympics -- is going all in, he's going to kick all out those last 50 meters -- he's going to be straining -- and then huffing and puffing afterwards.

It was notable that that didn't happen.

He may well have been brilliantly coached and trained and perfectly peaked.

It is unusual that he got all the commentators, Seb Coe, the fans in the stands, and your friends and casual fans to see that and really wonder...

So, his move was not as dramatic as some recall it.

But the fact that he made it from so far out, and extended it, and won handily, and then did not seem to be breathing hard -- like we assume on would after the last 100m of an Olympic final -- I think that is what causes people to ask questions.

Who here, in an Olympic final, would not have left it all on the track in the last 100m and looked like it afterwards?

800 dude wrote:

This guy wins an Olympic gold medal and shows no joy, just smug gloating. We know there's a lot of doping, but I'm always gonna hate on this guy for his display after he so easily snatched something that was the unattainable dream for no lesser runners than Bannister, Ryun, and Cram.

The sad truth^

AINT WORLDS LIKE ANOTHER MONTH FROM NOW? HOW DOES HE PULL OUT NOW FROM A MERE ILLNESS? VERY SUSPICIOUS. THIS EXCUSE IS EVEN MORE COMICAL THAN HIS FAKE DOCTOR'S NOTE IN LONDON.

Enjoyed every mintue ,,, I reckon to watch the link from wire to wire

sounds like Makhloufi has mono

It's challenging for me to read the word "asz" over and over again. "Asz... asz." Hmm.

I agree about the 800m shenanigans, they should have booted him for that. But I do think he looked obvious as a doper.

Let us see how the rest of his season goes; will he pop up with coincidental injuries like Carmelita Jeter at big, heavily-tested championships, but then be suddenly healthy at other meets? Or perhaps like at least one dominant U.S. road racer, steer clear of championships but find domestic races with big cash prizes and probably no drug-testing infrastructure? Well, for that last point I'm thinking there probably aren't any big road races like that in northern Africa, I don't know. Speculation. "Asz."

I think this race illustrates my point. The fall give a BIG jump on the field, and Morceli didn't really own them until the home stretch.

What's bizarre about the 2012 race is that Mak owned them only halfway through his kick. It wasn't like they were all going flat out and he was a little faster; he actually put the best runners in the world on life support just because they tried to hang with him for 100 or 150 meters.

A Duck wrote:

The thing that is literally remarkable...even for a 3:35ish race...Is, you watch the replay and everyone behind him in the last 100 is gritting their kick, mouth breathing clearly.

Mak is just running it through...after all the burst and dig over 300 meters...like it is another 80% 300 meter interval.

That doesn't indicate anything to me really. He was winning the race by a clear, safe margin. He didn't need to squeeze every tenth out of himself and, while I didn't analyze it closely, it looks like he slows down considerably. Maybe he could have won by 1.1 seconds rather than by .7 seconds, who knows... relaxing that .4 seconds over the last 40 meters can make a big difference in perceived exhaustion.

Although David Torrence's comment today might disagree with me, I'm not sure why people take that as a sign of PED use. Seems to me that drug users are still running just as hard during the race, unless they're slowing down to not look suspicious.

As for his 800 stunt, on the one hand, yes he should have been kicked out if they were following the rules. On the other hand, it bothers me less because I think it's kind of a dumb rule - you should be allowed to scratch from an event. But maybe that's just a sign of his character, he's willing to cheat to win at all costs. Still, it's not totally unreasonable to me that he was perfectly peaked in 3:29 shape and no one else was healthy and better than 3:32 shape...