Ethiopian Athletics Federation Formerly Protests IAAF Decicion to Eliminate Distance Running from Track

Amazed that Ethiopia is protesting when they have a virtually non existent drug testing system. They should have been banned along with the Russians. At least Kenyans have been busting some of their athletes including their Olympic gold medalists ...

I am from the USA, and I sure hope USATF makes a stand on this.

On behalf of distance athletes, their distance running members (past, present, and future) and for the sake of track and field, USATF please use your voice to stamp-out this ridiculous move by the IAAF.

card counter wrote:

Coe is a tactical idiot, like he was on the track. Always running on lane two or three.

And off the track. His personal life is a mess. Cheating on wives, affairs, secret girlfriends, then leaving them and into the next one. Google it. Quite a bit of scandal. Probably why he was advised to leave politics and go into athletics federation-ing (new adjective?) instead. Not the most stable person or reliable decision maker. Prone to making snap decisions in a whim based on irrational thinking.

Brit Disaffected wrote:

card counter wrote:

Coe is a tactical idiot, like he was on the track. Always running on lane two or three.

And off the track. His personal life is a mess. Cheating on wives, affairs, secret girlfriends, then leaving them and into the next one. Google it. Quite a bit of scandal. Probably why he was advised to leave politics and go into athletics federation-ing (new adjective?) instead. Not the most stable person or reliable decision maker. Prone to making snap decisions in a whim based on irrational thinking.

Coe descended from Jamaican sugar farmers and slave owners.

Banana Bread wrote:

I agree with the decision. In the past year we have had the sudden emergence of 5,000m and 10,000 runner boys who come out of nowhere when Mo steps off the track. Whatever drug entered the market last year obviously can't be detected yet. If all these new guys can't be banned for doping then this is the perfect punishment Take away what they intend to put to use their doping. I have more respect for Coe now. He has brains.

Ban the 100m on that basis as 50% of best times were set by proven dopers. That's us actually far worse than record for distance running.

Your post is complete nonsense from any point of view.

Where are your pics from the Kenyan XC championships? Come on, you were prattling on endlessly about it. Post them, please.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Banana Bread wrote:

I agree with the decision. In the past year we have had the sudden emergence of 5,000m and 10,000 runner boys who come out of nowhere when Mo steps off the track. Whatever drug entered the market last year obviously can't be detected yet. If all these new guys can't be banned for doping then this is the perfect punishment Take away what they intend to put to use their doping. I have more respect for Coe now. He has brains.

Ban the 100m on that basis as 50% of best times were set by proven dopers. That's us actually far worse than record for distance running.

Your post is complete nonsense from any point of view.

I won't be coming to you for coaching help anytime soon.

hypocrisy wrote:

Amazed that Ethiopia is protesting when they have a virtually non existent drug testing system. They should have been banned along with the Russians. At least Kenyans have been busting some of their athletes including their Olympic gold medalists ...

Stop changing the subject. Doping is irrelevant to this discussion.

card counter wrote:

Coe is a tactical idiot, like he was on the track. Always running on lane two or three.

No, that was subconscious guilt that made him do that. He felt he needed to make it fair to the other runners that didn’t knyhe doped. ;)

Coe carries toxoplasmosis which is associated with poor impulse control, reckless behaviour, higher risk of road accidents, etc.

?????????? wrote:

nothing ... PEDs wrote:

This dropping 5000m and 10000m and adding 3000m has absolutely nothing to do with anyone suspecting 5K/10K runners of using PEDs. 3000m is the longest running event which can be aired sans television commercial breaks. All races longer than 800m do not get exciting until last 800m. 3000m simply means the real racing starts five minutes or so into the race. You're argument is weak. The same men racing well at 5000m will also race well at 3000m.

You are making an assumption. Maybe the 3000m event they are talking about is the steeplechase.

A reasonable assumption. 2018 IAAF Continental had both 3000m and 3000mSC on schedule for men & women.

Funny IAAF posted this today

Maybe, just maybe, they have other events planned for 5,000 and 10,000?

You cannot race 10,000 twelve times in a season. You can jump or throw that often.

There are solutions to this problem. The issue is really the neverending laps with no action. My idea is to have the presentation of the runners and first few meters in the stadium and then they run out of the stadium and count laps on a local roundabout. Finally they enter the stadium and run the final lap.

PrZ wrote:

hypocrisy wrote:

Amazed that Ethiopia is protesting when they have a virtually non existent drug testing system. They should have been banned along with the Russians. At least Kenyans have been busting some of their athletes including their Olympic gold medalists ...

Stop changing the subject. Doping is irrelevant to this discussion.

It's kinda irrelevant.

The problem is that besides a few geeks, nobody is interested in these races anymore.

Not completely irrelevant, because the African dominance was built through relentless and unchecked doping.

?????????? wrote:

nothing ... PEDs wrote:

This dropping 5000m and 10000m and adding 3000m has absolutely nothing to do with anyone suspecting 5K/10K runners of using PEDs. 3000m is the longest running event which can be aired sans television commercial breaks. All races longer than 800m do not get exciting until last 800m. 3000m simply means the real racing starts five minutes or so into the race. You're argument is weak. The same men racing well at 5000m will also race well at 3000m.

You are making an assumption. Maybe the 3000m event they are talking about is the steeplechase.

I never considered that possibility and it's a scary thought to think.

eurodonkey wrote:

Maybe, just maybe, they have other events planned for 5,000 and 10,000?

You cannot race 10,000 twelve times in a season. You can jump or throw that often.

Of course..and they didn’t race it 12 times back then either. But there were the one or two diamond/golden league races that had it

I just find ironic iaaf post this when they’re basically trying to scrap this race

El Keniano wrote:

Kenya expected to follow suit. Plan to marshal support from all African federations. Hopefully the beginnings of a challenge to the Coe tyranny.

Prediction: there will be little or no support coming from Western federations and media, who largely agree, and it’s going to come down to Africa and Asia pushing back at this. Hopefully this results in Coe and his acolytes being bundled out of office.

I hope your prediction is wrong. Many western federations have distance programs. This basically eliminates distance running from track. It's crazy. Imagine if Mo Farah couldn't race the 5K or 10K?!

In the US the 5K is probably the most popular race distance. Every hobby jogger trains for one when they get into the sport.

I suspect that the African dominance in distance running hasn't helped its marketability, but if that is truly the reason for this decision it really sets a terrible precedence. Are we going to eliminate a sport every time a western country drops out of contention? If so I hope the east africans just dominate everything and whoever is in charge of this decision stops making money altogether.

El Keniano wrote:

Incidentally Tulu, the first Black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal when she upset media favourite Elena Meyer in the 10,000m in Barcelona 1992, may be part of the reason why the IAAF arrived at this misguided decision as she singlehandedly started a revolution in East Africa that saw women, who previously had been condemned to a life of continual pregnancy and eternal domesticity, challenge centuries of ingrained cultural biases and constraints and follow their men into the sport, ushering in the flood of Kenyan and Ethiopian dominance.

I fell out of my chair laughing at the thought that she is part of the reason why the IAAF arrived at this decision. Pure comedy gold!