Drummond Goes Down – But We’ve Got Lots Of Unanswered Questions

LRCUSA Olympic Coach Jon Drummond Gets Banned: 4 Big Thoughts, Including Was Tyson Gay On HGH Prior To The Summer Of 2012? We carefully read the 24-page decision in the Jon Drummond case and conclude this story is far from over as the report includes a bombshell on page 5 – Tyson Gay had a bottle labeled HGH which someone had given him before even met Dr. Gibson or moved to Dallas to work with Drummond in May in 2012. Then why did Gay’s suspension only begin in July?
*MB: A bombshell in the Jon Drummond decision? Report says Tyson Gay had a bottle labelled HGH in May of 2012

• Jon Drummond, Tyson Gay’s Ex-Coach And 2012 USA Olympic Relay Coach, Gets 8-Year Doping Ban Drummond also used to chair the USATF Athletics Advisory Committee. He was banned for possessing, trafficking, and administering banned substances. *Discuss
  *Lengthy Detailed Transcript On USADA Decision Against Drummond We’ll try to read this and get something up on it soon, but for now here is the full arbiter’s decision.
  *Max Siegel Statement*BBC Article
• Athletics Kenya Drops The Ball Big Time:Recently-Banned Kenyan Runner Viola Kimetto Furious With AK As They Never Even Told Her She Failed A Drug Test AK completely ignored the notice from the IAAF saying Kimetto was banned and even cleared her for a travel visa to go race a marathon in Zagreb. Because of this, Kimetto never got a chance to fight or explain the drug test, have her “B” sample tested, and now her ban has been extended by almost a year since she unknowingly raced when she wasn’t supposed to.
• Russian Whistleblowers Say They Have More Proof To Support Their Allegations About Doping In Russia 800 runner Yulia Stepanova and her husband Vitaly Stepanov say they are still waiting to hear from the IAAF and WADA so they can share their evidence. One would think this is something an “Independent Ethics Commission” would look into?
• The Telegraph Asks What The Worst Federation Of 2014 – Was It The IAAF? They decided that while the IAAF was a strong rival, Fifa was the worst.

Doping Updates: Wilson Kipsang Missed A Test, Dick Pound Takes On Russia

• Wilson Kipsang Missed An Out-Of-Competition Drug Test Last Month Athletes are allowed three “whereabouts failures” within an 18-month period, so there will be no sanction for Kipsang.
• Kipsang Accuses Athletics Kenya Of Trying To Tarnish His Name Because Of His Role As The Head Of The Kenyan Athletes’ Union Kipsang says he missed an out-of-competition test because he was in South Africa at a global Athletics conference. “In response to the Statement issued by AK, I wish to state it clearly that it is breach of privacy with malicious target to soil my name …”
• Former WADA President Dick Pound To Head An Independent Commission To Investigate Russian Doping Allegations
• Interesting Read:Renato Canova Talks About Doping In Kenya And Questions The Validity Of The Biological Passport System Canova argues that the best athletes do not benefit from taking EPO. “I don’t accept the fact that blood doping can give big advantages to athletes with top talent, at their best training level. And, if other coaches and doctors can support the idea automatically we will drastically reduce the number of athletes looking at PEDs, if they think this doesn’t give any advantage (or very little advantage only).”
• IAAF Statement Supporting WADA Independent Investigation Of Doping Allegations
• UK Athletes Rhys Williams And Gareth Warburton Wait Decisions Of Their Doping Hearings The verdicts for the sprinter and mid-d runner are due next month. They both were kicked off the Commonwealth Games team after failing drug tests.

• Adrian Peterson Won’t Try For The Olympics According To ProFootballTalk They reported that he plans to play football in 2015. Interesting stat: 40 NFL players have competed in a Summer Olympics – 33 in track and field, six in wrestling and one in handball.
• Sports Illustrated’s 50 Fittest Females Compilation Allyson Felix was #1 and Dayra Klishina, Dawn Harper, Jenn Suhr, Jessica Ennis, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Tianna Bartoletta also made the list.
• NCAA’s Top Relay Teams For 2014 Recognized At USTFCCCA Convention

EPO Marathoners In The News

• We Should Know Result Of Rita Jeptoo’s “B” Sample Test Later This Week Announcement expected on Saturday.
• Relay Runner Accidentally Steals Spotlight And Breaks Tape From Dallas Marathon Winner Shitaye Gemechu It was an accident as 51-year-old Janice Moore said, “I have nothing but the best respect for Shitaye Gemechu and did not mean to go in front of her.” We, however, disagree with Moore and lack respect for past-EPO user Gemechu. 3rd placer Liza Hunter-Galvan also has a past ban for EPO to her name. *Video*MB Thread

Olympic Stuff: 2016 Track Schedule Released

• Full Track And Field Schedule For 2016 Olympics Released Unlike most past Olympics, a handful of the finals will be held in the morning sessions. The IAAF also made a statement on the possibility of track events being removed from future Games: “No credence whatsoever should be given to recent unfounded speculation …”
• UK’s Former World Champ Dai Greene Upset About 400H Being Scheduled For The AM At Rio Olympics
• US 2024? USOC Will Hear Olympic Bid Pitches From Four Cities Today LA, DC, Boston and San Fran.
• A Deeper Look At Rome’s Bid For The 2024 Olympics Which Could Involve The Vatican There is hypothetical talk of having some events in St. Peter’s Square.
• Drug Resistant “Super Bacteria” Found In Water For Rio 2016 Sailing Events
• NY Times: Kosovo Savors An Olympic Victory, Two Years Before The Torch Is Lit Earlier this month, the IOC voted to admit them and let them compete at the Olympics.

• Deklerk Omari (2:13:04) And Rebecca Chepchirchir (2:41:00) Win Kisumu Marathon In Kenya
• Recap Of National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Championships
• European Team Selected For Great Edinburgh Cross-Country The meet between the US, UK and Europe is on January 10th.
• A Look Back At Past Winners Of BBC’s Sports Personality Of The Year Award A lot of track athletes, including the first winner in 1954, Chris Chataway. That year he set the 5,000m WR and also helped rabbit Roger Bannister to the first sub-4-minute mile.
• Last Week: Patrick Smyth And Kimber Mattox Win XTERRA Trail Running World Championships

‘Thon #3 For Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele’s Third Marathon Will Be In Dubai On January 23rd; Now Being Coached By Renato Canova Bekele said that he learned a lot from his disappointing race in Chicago and that things have gone well since then. Canova has taken over his training and is with him in Ethiopia.
*MB: RENATO CANOVA is Bekele’s new coach!
*Bekele On The Possibility Of The Sub-2-Hour Marathon “I don’t think human beings can do that, but maybe a new generation in the future … maybe in 10 years.”

Euro XC Champs Were Sunday *Results: Men*Women*All Races

• GB’s Gemma Steel Just Nips Teammate And NCAA Champion Kate Avery To Win European XC Champs GB dominated the team competition to win easily.
  *Video Interview With Avery*Steel
• Former 2-Time Champ Fionnuala Britton Leads Irish Women To 3rd Place Team Finish Britton was 1st-1st and 4th the last three years, but only 6th on Sunday. *2nd Article
• Turkey’s Polat Kemboi Arikan Wins Men’s Race At Euro XC Champs In Close Battle With His Teammate Alia Kaya Just as in the women’s race, both men finished with the same time. Spain’s defending champion Alemayehu Bezabeh was third, 11 seconds back. Turkey won the team competition, beating Spain by 3 points.
• All The Top 3 In The Men’s Euro XC Championship Race Were Formerly Of Kenya Or Ethiopia
• More Recaps: *IAAF Recap*Men’s Under-23*Women’s Under-23*Men’s Junior*Women’s Junior

•  Italian Prime Minister Unveils Rome 2024 Olympic Bid
• Brazilian Public Names Rio 2016 Mascots Vinicius And Tom The names honor Brazilian musicians Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim.

American Stars Getting Good Pub

• Meb Gets Q&A In ESPN Mag
• Molly Huddle Funding Middle School Track Program Revival

Administrative News

• Attorney David Greifinger Says Hightower/Hersh Vote Should Be Rescinded
  
• Elliott Denman Gives His Thoughts On The Controversial Hersh/Hightower Decision
  
• Will Leer Blogs About Attending USATF Convention He’s got good news – USATF will fill the distance fields at USAs. The bad news – well, you already know that.
• Tim Hadzima Has Been Named General Manager Of The Abbott World Marathon Majors Previously, he worked in marketing for Bank of America.

News From The UK

• 2012 Olympic Heptathlete Louise Hazel Is Enjoying Being Retired As She Now Can Go To The Pub “I had never been in a pub on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, having a roast, playing darts. What a novelty! It was brilliant.”
• Jo Pavey Is Crowned British Athletics Athlete Of The Year In Fan Vote The young athlete of the year was Matthew Hudson-Smith.

The Triple Jump Might Be Safe, But Not The 10K

• The 200, 10,000 And Shot Put Allegedly Among Events That Could Be Removed From The Olympics Australian paper is reporting that those along with the 20K race walk and TJ are being considered in the IOC’s push to make room for other sports. Apparently the 10,000 is most at risk.
  *MB:IOC in Talks, Pondering to Remove 10k/200m from Olympics
• Glasgow Herald Writer Warns That Olympic Reforms Might Mean A Painful “Price That Will Have To Be Paid” For Track And Field He knows “every event on the programme is sacrosanct to aficionados of whatever discipline” so there will be uproar no matter what goes.