I haven’t read this thread yet but WTF was with Pete Pfitzinger’s statement expressing concern for Robertson’s well being? I know we live in a therapeutic age and all but it seems to me his concern is profoundly misplaced.
The article was initially entiteld, "Zane Robertston!!!!" but we changed it to make it more descriptive. Here is our article on his bust and fake excuses (he said he went to a hospital for a COvid-19 vaccine but they gave him EPO instead) which points out that in 2016 he expressed frutation at the amount of doping in the sport:
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Kipcheater 2 wrote:
In Kenya, EPO is regarded as black magic. Kenyans worship it, and believe it can cure everything.
You guys are taking one of your white guys getting popped pretty hard I see.
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Woke is a disease wrote:
Zane was foolish in thinking that officials would give some Western paleface the same breaks given to the always smiling African cheats. Hah.
Haha, I'm loving the meltdowns from you guys.
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heya wrote:
New Zealand long-distance runner Zane Robertson has admitted to cheating after he was yesterday suspended for doping.
The Commonwealth Games medallist was suspended by the Sports Tribunal for eight years after a prohibited substance was found in his system. He also tampered, or tried to tamper, with part of the doping control process, the Sports Tribunal announced.
The Tribunal banned him for four years for the presence and use or attempted use of the prohibited substance Erythropoietin (EPO) and another four for tampering.
Speaking on the podcast Runner’s Only with Dom Harvey, Robertson opened up about why he decided to cheat, claiming it was a “one-off”.
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“It’s been a pretty depressing and devastating day for me,” he said on the podcast.
“There’s many reasons and it’s just not one particular reason. I hate it so much that it’s just a one-off hit and I got caught. It’s been building on me for a few years. Frustration and anger at the sport itself and any elite sports, I just believe it’s not a level playing field like they say.
“I started to ask myself this question: why do people like myself always have to be the ones to lose or suffer. In the end, lose our contracts, lose our income, lose our race winnings, and eventually give up not having the ability to have a family ... that was one reason.”
He added that personal and professional troubles — including a “nasty divorce” — also drove him towards doping.
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“The other [reason], especially after the Covid era, prize money and races went down. Contracts were almost dropped as well. After the Olympics I was told by one of my companies we thought you would run better, and an immediate exit from the deal.
“Nothing was seeming to go my way. I had a lot of background noise away from the running year as well ... I spent a lot of my life savings just trying to survive. I was providing for myself and my wife at the time ... we already knew we were going to go through a divorce period. It was a nasty divorce proceeding.
“Some things led to another and a lot of stress was placed on me. I made some bad decisions in a really dark time.”
Robertson won bronze for New Zealand at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 and competed at the last two Olympics.
- more to comeBull. Bull. Bull.
One off my eye. Olympics sports like track are the only sports that really care about doping. Every other sport, you know the ones that people actually pay money to watch, give lip service to doping prevention but everyone knows it happens.
YOU CAN NOT BE A CHAMPION IN ANY SPORT WITHOUT SOME SORT OF DOPING.
To believe otherwise makes you very gullible. Any amount of research will show you how EASY it is to dope and not get caught and how MUCH of an advantage it is.
Alan
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Zane speaks! He did an interview this morning with Dom Harvey on the "Runners Only" podcast on spotify.
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David Deeble wrote:
I haven’t read this thread yet but WTF was with Pete Pfitzinger’s statement expressing concern for Robertson’s well being? I know we live in a therapeutic age and all but it seems to me his concern is profoundly misplaced.
It’s to make sure he doesn’t unalive himself. Not that hard to understand. No one’s life is worth a doping charge.
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Nick Willis\'s browsing history wrote:
Zane speaks! He did an interview this morning with Dom Harvey on the "Runners Only" podcast on spotify.
That user name though 😂😂
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rest of article if you follow the same nz herald link:
The 33-year-old said his attempt to cover up the result during the doping process, which added another four years to his suspension, was his last-ditch attempt to save his career.
“I want to take full blame for that as well. That was my idea. To me four years is the same as eight. It’s the end of my career. There’s no coming back from this and I knew. I was just trying to save my arse.”
He said EPO “helps the red blood cells to develop more in the body”.
“That produces more oxygen to be pushed around the body, so you can run faster for longer without feeling it.”
Robertson, who lives in Kenya, said because EPO is something the body produces naturally it is difficult to detect, adding that the drug was “a culture of the sport”.
“I can’t say too much because of my situation and where I live ... It’s a culture of the sport, that’s it.”
Asked why the public should believe him when he says it was a “one off”, Robertson replied: “I have been tested over 50 times in my career and after every single race that I’ve ever competed well in. I’ve been tested before the races, after the races, and my samples are stored for the next 10 years after the events ... There’s been no problems with my past samples.”
Robertson also apologised to his fans and the young supporters who looked up to him in New Zealand.
“I definitely would tell them I’m really sorry that I let them all down. I just want to tell them that this wasn’t my whole career. I always wanted to do my best for everyone who looked up to me in such a way. I’m sorry.”
Robertson won bronze in the 5000m at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, then finished 12th in the 10,000m at the Olympics two years later.
Known for training in Kenya with his twin brother Jake, he moved up to the marathon distance, finishing 36th at the Tokyo Olympics.20 -
So on the issue of NZ drug testing being lax:
The drug test that ensnared Kiwi distance runner Zane Robertson leading to his eight-year ban from sport was a targeted test orchestrated by Drug Free Sport NZ.
The Sports Tribunal on Wednesday announced Robertson’s suspension after he tested positive for the banned substance Erythropoietin (EPO) at the Great Manchester Run in May last year.
The two-time Olympian’s ban was effectively doubled after he offered up a bizarre defence of how the substance ended up in his system, producing falsified records and false testimony to support his claims.
Stuff has learned the test that led to Robertson’s downfall was not a random in-competition test, as is commonly carried out at major sporting events, but rather a targeted test arranged and paid for by New Zealand anti-doping authorities.
READ MORE:
* The extraordinary lengths Kiwi Olympian Zane Robertson took to deceive anti-doping authorities
* Olympian Zane Robertson banned for eight years for doping violations
* Running policeman banned for importing performance-enhancing drugs
Drug Free Sport NZ (DFSNZ) chief executive Nick Paterson confirmed his agency had engaged its UK counterparts to carry out the testing of Robertson at the Manchester event. Robertson finished 11th in the 10km event, while his twin brother Jake took out the race.
“It was one of our tests,” Paterson said.
“In this case UK Anti-Doping were the sample collection authority, so we contracted them to collect the sample for us, once the sample is collected, it is our sample, and we are responsible for everything thereafter.”
MATT HAZLETT/GETTY IMAGES
Zane Robertson has previously been highly outspoken about doping in the sport.
Paterson added the sample was analysed in a London laboratory, with the results reported directly back to DFSNZ.
EPO is a hormone used to boost red blood cell production to increase oxygen transport around the body, improving aerobic performance. Its use is prohibited at all times under sport’s anti-doping rules. But EPO can be notoriously difficult to detect with test results often producing “atypical findings”, which is not the same as a positive result.
Asked if there had been any irregularities with any of Robertson’s previous test results, Paterson said he “could not answer that”.
“We can only deal with the positive test in front of us. While I understand your question, anything that occurred before that is irrelevant and not part of this case.”
MORE FROM
DANA JOHANNSEN • NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
dana.johannsen@stuff.co.nz
News of Robertson’s ban has cast a long shadow over his athletics career, with many now questioning the validity of the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist’s national records.
Robertson holds seven New Zealand records over the 3000m to marathon distance. He also holds the Oceania record in the half-marathon, after breaking the one-hour barrier at the Kagawa Marugame event in Japan in 2015.
Paterson stressed DFSNZ “at this point in time” has no evidence to suggest that Robertson was doping during the period the records were set. He added the only result that will be scrubbed from Robertson’s record is his 11th placing in Manchester in May 2022.
However, Paterson confirmed DFSNZ does have the ability to retest previous samples Robertson has provided.
“We retest samples every year, so we retain a proportion of samples in the lab, and every year we will retest some of those samples and we can do that up to eight or 10 years on,” Paterson said.
“We give some thought to who we are testing, when and why, so the re-testing we do is not random either.
Asked whether Robertson’s previous samples would likely be tested in light of his drugs ban, Paterson responded:
“All athletes will be up for discussion, depending on the risks we see in the environment.”
Stuff has attempted to contact Robertson, who is still based in Kenya, but has been unsuccessful.
In an instagram post last month Robertson announced he had retired from professional running, and had “no plans on future events”.60 -
Why don't you Zane Robertson fans start a GoFundMe to buy ol' boy a ticket back to NZ so he stops blaming where he lives for not revealing what he knows? Same tired teases every time: "You fellas would be shocked senseless if you knew what I know". Still had nothing to say about Kenya when he was living in Ethiopia. And you just know even if he were to move back to NZ, he would claim he has to protect his brother who's settled with a young family in Kenya.
I say, he's a poseur who knows nothing that hasn't been said before.
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^Also, Zane knows WA, AIU, WADA and every body out there have whistleblower channels so if he wanted to expose something anonymously, he would have by now.
As for this:
Asked about why the public should believe him when he says it was a “one off”, Robertson replied: “I have been tested over 50 times in my career and after every single race that I’ve ever competed well in. I’ve been tested before the races, after the races, and my samples are stored for the next 10 years after the events ... There’s been no problems with my past samples.”
Virtually everyone's who's been competing for a while could say the same thing.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.190 -
How many Kenyan busts? How many for every other nation on Earth put together? Right. Glass houses and all that...
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Runningart2004 wrote:
heya wrote:
New Zealand long-distance runner Zane Robertson has admitted to cheating after he was yesterday suspended for doping.
The Commonwealth Games medallist was suspended by the Sports Tribunal for eight years after a prohibited substance was found in his system. He also tampered, or tried to tamper, with part of the doping control process, the Sports Tribunal announced.
The Tribunal banned him for four years for the presence and use or attempted use of the prohibited substance Erythropoietin (EPO) and another four for tampering.
Speaking on the podcast Runner’s Only with Dom Harvey, Robertson opened up about why he decided to cheat, claiming it was a “one-off”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise with NZME.
“It’s been a pretty depressing and devastating day for me,” he said on the podcast.
“There’s many reasons and it’s just not one particular reason. I hate it so much that it’s just a one-off hit and I got caught. It’s been building on me for a few years. Frustration and anger at the sport itself and any elite sports, I just believe it’s not a level playing field like they say.
“I started to ask myself this question: why do people like myself always have to be the ones to lose or suffer. In the end, lose our contracts, lose our income, lose our race winnings, and eventually give up not having the ability to have a family ... that was one reason.”
He added that personal and professional troubles — including a “nasty divorce” — also drove him towards doping.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise with NZME.
“The other [reason], especially after the Covid era, prize money and races went down. Contracts were almost dropped as well. After the Olympics I was told by one of my companies we thought you would run better, and an immediate exit from the deal.
“Nothing was seeming to go my way. I had a lot of background noise away from the running year as well ... I spent a lot of my life savings just trying to survive. I was providing for myself and my wife at the time ... we already knew we were going to go through a divorce period. It was a nasty divorce proceeding.
“Some things led to another and a lot of stress was placed on me. I made some bad decisions in a really dark time.”
Robertson won bronze for New Zealand at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 and competed at the last two Olympics.
- more to comeBull. Bull. Bull.
One off my eye. Olympics sports like track are the only sports that really care about doping. Every other sport, you know the ones that people actually pay money to watch, give lip service to doping prevention but everyone knows it happens.
YOU CAN NOT BE A CHAMPION IN ANY SPORT WITHOUT SOME SORT OF DOPING.
To believe otherwise makes you very gullible. Any amount of research will show you how EASY it is to dope and not get caught and how MUCH of an advantage it is.
Alan
So, you agree it was impossible for S Coe to race sub-1:42 800m sans p.e.d.s over 40 years ago. Fast tracks, fast shoes and still no one can race sub-1:42 800m anymore.
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readysteady wrote:
You guys are taking one of your white guys getting popped pretty hard I see.
Isn’t that understandable? It’s more shocking when a non-Kenyan gets caught because we’re so used to Kenyans being the ones getting caught. With another Kenyan getting caught seemingly every week, it’s more newsworthy when it happens to a runner from another country.
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#356
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jacksprat wrote:
How many Kenyan busts? How many for every other nation on Earth put together? Right. Glass houses and all that...
The AIU spends a quarter of its resources on just Kenya (as they should because Kenya is successful). As I always say, if you send most of your cops to one neighbourhood, don't act surprised when most of your incidents and busts come from that same neighbourhood. It's common sense.
Then of course there's the numbers. Here are the current rankings for the men's marathon. Out the top 100, Kenya 🇰🇪 has 37 and Ethiopia 🇪🇹 has 36. The rest of the world 🌎 has to share the remaining 27 spots between them. How's that for perspective?
This post was edited 10 minutes after it was posted.131 -
rojo wrote:
straightshooter wrote:
Does anyone know of an athlete who, without any resistance, refreshingly replied, "You got me!" immediately after the bust? Serious question.
Yes. Raven Saunders :Can the morons who don't understand nuance stop saying we are justifying Zane's doping and claiming it's Kenya's fault? I have simply been saying it's an interesting story. Two idealistic teens move to Kenya at age 17 to learn from the world's best. 16 years later, at least one of them is doping.
To me, it's a sad story. One of the biggest disappointments of my adult life is to realize how corrupt shi* is.
When you're young, you don't care about money. Maybe with a wife (and kids?), he realized it's pragmatic to care. Ultimately, it's all on his shoulders.
that's not admitting 'you got me' at all. in fact it's the total opposite - doubling down on the 'im not a doper' narrative. why would you post this?
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So he gets popped on the ONE time that he doped, in a race where he finished 11th in an average field (so clearly couldn’t afford to buy the good stuff). These dopers have such bad luck. Try thinking before speaking, Zane.
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themildrunmaster wrote:
rojo wrote:
As for 'naiming names', I"d love to see it to but no one names names. You name names here in Baltimore and it could get you killed, you name names in Iten, it's probably the same . Plius you've got to figure out how to make a living for the rest of you life.
And someone may give you a little cash not to name names.
This is where something (or someone) needs to step in and try to get the Robertsons to talk. If the rumors that >80% of Kenyans are doping, this could honestly be the chink in the chainmail to crack the whole dang case open.
Yes, it would be extremely dangerous for Zane to start naming names. However, that information is still extremely valuable. If Zane is as opportunistic as he seems, I'd think he'd definitely take up the right opportunity to give it up--as long as he has full protection. I doubt he has many better business opportunities on his plate right now...
My question is: was he given the option to have a reduced sentence if he gave up names? This should be a top priority for all anti-doping agencies. It would be an egregious oversight on their part not to give Zane that option.
If I were a Phil Knight-esque person right now (someone with enormous amounts of money to burn and an interest in promoting the health of T&F), I would be making a proposal to Zane: offering him the opportunity to come fully clean with a comprehensive list of information that can lead to a full-scale bust of the entire doping system--and in exchange, receiving a huge chunk o change, along with all the necessary resources to protect him & family from the backlash he might receive (either setting him up somewhere in Kenya with proper protection, or getting him out of Kenya back to NZ, US, whatever). Maybe even set him up with a pencil pusher job to get him back on his feet. Of course, doping agencies can't do this, but no one is preventing an opportunistic individual from doing this.
Maybe it sounds a bit outlandish to do that, but there's a particular reason why I think Zane would be the right person to do this (as opposed to all the rest of the Kenyan athletes getting popped right now): As mentioned in this thread, Zane has had significant bad blood with certain people in Kenya in the past. He's not buddy-buddy with everyone there, and perhaps he'd be the right person to turn on them if he had the chance. Sort of, using that beef he has with them for a positive reason. It's possible that I'm conflating all Kenyans here--I don't really know the ins and outs of that, so if I'm really off base here, just tell me.
Anyway, I just think it would be a huge loss for the sport if Zane was given no reasonable chance to come fully clean, and instead was bought out by the underground doping circles in Kenya to stay silent. Anti-doping agencies cannot remain to simply be reactive, they need to start being proactive.
i like the concept and some of the thinking, although it wouldnt work because a) its absolutely not in phil knight (or equivalent's) interestt to expose doping b) zane's a proven liar with bad blood so i) he'd probably lie and ii) no one could fully believe him anyway
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