Well it has been "ratified" as of today on World Athletics page, so why would that change?
I don't think Ruth is ever going to fully disclose what led her to take the masking substances, to probably dilute the "real stuff" she had been taking.
2 years is small price to pay, for all those massive paydays she accumulated over the past several years. If she invests wisely, she'll never have to work again, and will be able to provide to her extended family for life.
According to a Kenyan friend, she's just a country girl with an iron will who trained hard, but probably was manipulated into taking stuff to enhance her performances.
In legal terms she's a victim, as she follows the directives of her coaches and agents.
Sad times.
I have friends in Kenya. I know you've been there and could know more than I do, but from what I've been told in general she actually may not know what she was taking aside from what she's learnt got her banned. Again, this is second hand, but it seems that Kenyan runners don't spend a lot of time looking at Letsrun or other places where there are discussions about doping in the sport and the ways to do it. For many of them, and I have no idea if she is one, if a coach or agent tells you to take this because it can make you faster you take it. So I find the "just a country girl" argument believable.
That doesn't make it okay. She's made piles of money that rightfully should have gone to someone else and the damage this sort of thing has done to the sport may well be beyond repair. But she and other doping athletes are just part of the problem. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe she's one of Rosa'a runners. He'll keep his cut of her winnings and will go on representing other athletes and getting his share of their earnings. If they're also banned he'll replace them with still more athletes. This holds true for all agents.
I also want to see what race directors and shoe companies do when her ban is up. Will she get another shoe deal? Will directors give her appearance money? She'll certainly be a "name" and will generate what passes for loads of attention in our sport. And I agree with your original premise, WA will let her record stay on the books on the grounds that she set it before she failed her test and that to me is sad.
Correct, Frederico Rosa is Ruth's agent. Not sure if he's implicated in any malfeasance with regard to Ruth's infraction. It would be good if he explained the situation, because Ruth C. is unlikely to talk. She defers to her coaches and agents (Rosa et al).
Although adults are responsible for what they ingest, you could argue, as you implied, that susceptible, naive athletes could easily fall into the trap of taking supplements, some legal, others not, without questions. This, I suspect, is the case here.
I have friends in Kenya. I know you've been there and could know more than I do, but from what I've been told in general she actually may not know what she was taking aside from what she's learnt got her banned. Again, this is second hand, but it seems that Kenyan runners don't spend a lot of time looking at Letsrun or other places where there are discussions about doping in the sport and the ways to do it. For many of them, and I have no idea if she is one, if a coach or agent tells you to take this because it can make you faster you take it. So I find the "just a country girl" argument believable.
That doesn't make it okay. She's made piles of money that rightfully should have gone to someone else and the damage this sort of thing has done to the sport may well be beyond repair. But she and other doping athletes are just part of the problem. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe she's one of Rosa'a runners. He'll keep his cut of her winnings and will go on representing other athletes and getting his share of their earnings. If they're also banned he'll replace them with still more athletes. This holds true for all agents.
I also want to see what race directors and shoe companies do when her ban is up. Will she get another shoe deal? Will directors give her appearance money? She'll certainly be a "name" and will generate what passes for loads of attention in our sport. And I agree with your original premise, WA will let her record stay on the books on the grounds that she set it before she failed her test and that to me is sad.
Correct, Frederico Rosa is Ruth's agent. Not sure if he's implicated in any malfeasance with regard to Ruth's infraction. It would be good if he explained the situation, because Ruth C. is unlikely to talk. She defers to her coaches and agents (Rosa et al).
Although adults are responsible for what they ingest, you could argue, as you implied, that susceptible, naive athletes could easily fall into the trap of taking supplements, some legal, others not, without questions. This, I suspect, is the case here.
On the other hand, if I'm a potentially up and coming Kenyan star and I've seen heaven knows how many of my fast countrymen getting banned for PED violations how I cannot ask a coach or agent telling me to take something what I'm being given and if it could get me banned? When one of my Kenyan friends was here a few years back hoping to make a few dollars at road races we went to a GNC because he wanted some supplements. He was meticulous about making sure he wasn't getting anything that could make him fail a drug test.
Well they and the US made a terrible mistake in gratifying a very clearly flawed 10.49 mark (the wind was blowing everyone's kit around and the reading was 0.0 and it was a quarter final where all but one ran Lifetime bests).
So they are loath to fix mistakes. They missed a chance by not selecting to highlight Millenium Records starting in 2000.
Doping itself is years ahead of testing. If they know what to test for and it was still in her system they may be able to retest pre- and/or post-Chicago samples but it could be something they don't know about as of yet. Give the recent Science of Sport podcast episode with Ross Tucker a listen. He goes over how it's very likely that time will stay ratified and be considered "clean", even though she was popped for the diuretic months after. "It's hard to believe someone would run a world record and *then* start doping."
Junxia Wang's monster 8:06.11/3000 (September 1993, Beijing) has never been nullified. In that race, btw, second place "no name" Chinese female, Yunxia Qu, ran 8:12.18, and not far behind her teammate Linli Zhang 8:16.50. Other zhonguo lady, Liyan Ma, 8:19.78. Those times, from 1993 (!), would still be top notch today, ahead of Klosterhalfen, Gidey, Obiri and other monster women.
My point: Chepngetich's 2:09:56 will probably remain in the record books for eternity. It might take years, or decades to beat that time. Difficult/impossible to predict.
Wang Junxia was never officially caught and subsequently was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame.
Funny how the world works...
Which is surprising given that she’s given interviews discussing the doping Ma’s Army was expected to undergo.