Ironically, Fabian Roncero is now the owner and CEO of a multi-million Euro fitness centre in Madrid Spain promoting health, wellness and longevity. Not a bad sideline for a former "alleged doper."
This is why I think we should be careful about accusing people without true evidence or foundation.
Keith Richards wants a word with you on drug use and longevity 🤣
I'm curious how much running he did and what kind of fitness he maintained between his professional running days and currently. A guy who took a long layoff, and even got pretty badly out of shape who came back to perform extremely well at about the same age as Reyes was John Trautmann. Not quite as spectacular, but great nonetheless, especially considering what condition Trautmann came back from.
An injury forced John Trautmann to drop out of his 5,000m semifinal at the Olympics. During his comeback he lost weight and broke an age-group world record.
They didn't develop a good EPO test until 2000 (improved by 2005 along with ABP in 2009), so yeah, many strong runners from this era will be doubted.
Reyes ran a similar time one year earlier, 3.30.87, and the race didn't seem crazy suspicious to me. He had the easiest heat times of the medalists, 341 and 338. His surge was spread out over almost 200m, not too onerous, though possibly a little amped from the home crowd. Getting into medal position by the bell is a sound tactic. I think he had no illusions about beating ElG. Ngeny was patient and waited for the backstraight to pass. This is not meant to prove he's innocent of doping, just that it seemed a possible race outcome for someone with lesser medal potential. I was entertained, thanks for digging this up!
A similar time but 5th in a fast-paced one-off. It’s a little different and it was a big, aggressive move the commentators even note it. The race was lightning-fast, so roaring onto close to El G’s shoulder is something. I would say Ngeny was patient in Sydney, in this race he merely knew his limit and El Guerrouj was too good and the pace was too hot. Estevez did never match the time nor the level of performance. Rotich and Lelei were no slouches and they were well off Estevez even with him a go-for-broke move.
The Spanish runner doping discussion slightly reminds me of Alejandro Valverde, one of the winningest Spanish road cyclists of all time... who won a lot of races already during tail end of the Armstrong era, was associated with Operation Puerto in 2006, even banned for a couple of years, and so on.
But kept winning, kept being competitive, during the "clean new era" of cycling even into his mid to late 30s - he even won the 2018 world champs road race and was 2nd in the 2019 Vuelta (!). I haven't followed cycling for a few years, but it seems he only retired from elite road cycling a year or so ago, at the age of 42, still competitive in the one day classics based on his 2022 results.
One of those guys that seems to have be an absolute top talent, and surely took good care of nutrition etc. during his career, but who almost certainly also doped to the limit "allowed" in each era. Never went all the way to the real "rocket fuel", at least in his youth, but generally stayed on the healthy side of things?
Sir, if he were really a "doper" do you really think he would survive 30 years of top class athletics? He'd be dead by now....Thank you for your interesting comment, without foundation/evidence.
I'm not here for unfounded doping accusations, but in this case there is plenty of circumstantial evidence. Some already mentioned by other posters. He is implicated by name in places and Spanish athletics at the time was highly suspect. His '99 WC race in Seville where he set his PB is frankly a ridiculous (and highly suspicious) performance for an athlete of his caliber. He roars past Noah Ngeny at the bell in a lightning-fast race as you can see Ngeny (who had run 3:43 that year) holding on for dear life. He looks like he's legitimately going after El Guerrouj and racing for the win in a 3:27 race (after rounds). He doesn't hold on, but to me that looks like a rocket-fueled performance if I'd ever saw one from the irrationality of his tactics to the out-of-his-body type performance. Here is the .
The Spanish runner doping discussion slightly reminds me of Alejandro Valverde, one of the winningest Spanish road cyclists of all time... who won a lot of races already during tail end of the Armstrong era, was associated with Operation Puerto in 2006, even banned for a couple of years, and so on.
But kept winning, kept being competitive, during the "clean new era" of cycling even into his mid to late 30s - he even won the 2018 world champs road race and was 2nd in the 2019 Vuelta (!). I haven't followed cycling for a few years, but it seems he only retired from elite road cycling a year or so ago, at the age of 42, still competitive in the one day classics based on his 2022 results.
One of those guys that seems to have be an absolute top talent, and surely took good care of nutrition etc. during his career, but who almost certainly also doped to the limit "allowed" in each era. Never went all the way to the real "rocket fuel", at least in his youth, but generally stayed on the healthy side of things?
So what would you have done differently in his shoes?
I'm not here for unfounded doping accusations, but in this case there is plenty of circumstantial evidence. Some already mentioned by other posters. He is implicated by name in places and Spanish athletics at the time was highly suspect. His '99 WC race in Seville where he set his PB is frankly a ridiculous (and highly suspicious) performance for an athlete of his caliber. He roars past Noah Ngeny at the bell in a lightning-fast race as you can see Ngeny (who had run 3:43 that year) holding on for dear life. He looks like he's legitimately going after El Guerrouj and racing for the win in a 3:27 race (after rounds). He doesn't hold on, but to me that looks like a rocket-fueled performance if I'd ever saw one from the irrationality of his tactics to the out-of-his-body type performance. Here is the .
Who cares. If he was caught then fine, do away with him, throw him out of the sport. But if he was never caught (read: innocent 😌) then that just means he is a great competitor. Even if he used drugs, not getting caught means that you are dedicated to self improvement, and smart enough to circumvent rules. You know, like every single successful person in every single field has done.
Everyone with half a brain knows Reyes Estevez doped. Like Fermin Cacho and bloody Johann Mühlegg everyone in Spain was super doped. Is this even an argument?
Reyes probably just took what people did but is a large talent with wide range. 28:56 is a joke compared to 3:30, he did what he did.
Probably just still likes running, live with it neffews.
Id like to see how fast he can run a 1500,and a 5000 these days.He looks super fit.
Explain the "rocket fuelled performance" concept. Or at least admit that your above post is self contradictory.
So you have a guy whose PB going in (3:30.8) was running 4.4 seconds behind Hicham El Guerrouj in 1998. Noah Ngeny is the only guy expected to be close at all to El Guerrouj having managed to nearly get past him in the Mile World Record (a la Nuguse at Pre). He's run very fast (most of the year's top times) and has a great pedigree as well from his junior days and even pacing 1150 of El Guerrouj's 3:26.00 World Record 1500. Outside of that you have an aging Fermin Cacho and Nourredine Morceli running up front, so perhaps they could summon some old "magic." And some decent Kenyans in the 3:30-1 range. Estevez himself has run ~3:32 a couple times on the season to finish 6th on the circuit twice and a 3rd at the Spanish Champs.
The gun goes off and it is a glorified time trial with El G's teammate taking them out. 54.3(likely 55.0 for Estevez)/1:52.15 (~1:52.8 for Estevez). So this unevenly paced but blazing fast race should be pretty much flat-out for a guy who never would go under 3:30.4 in his career. 3rd race in 4 days, really fast first lap. Good time to settle and try to kick behind the top 2 as other fades. Instead at 550 to go, Estevez rips off a sensational 250 meters. He goes from 15 meters behind Hicham El Guerrouj (who is running a ~40.5 300m segment within a 54.5 lap mind you) at 950 meters to a stride behind at 1,200 meters. That's with running wide on the curve. He probably ran that 250 meter segment at about 52.5 pace. His 300 from 900 to 1200 is 39.8 or so despite running some of it wide and only really starting his big move midway through the cure. To me, that might be believable for a guy with 3:27-8 talent. Estevez never showed that before and after and settled into being a 3:32 type guy. What changed? The EPO test was introduced among other things.
In 2001, you can watch a similar race at Edmonton and watch how different an athlete he was. He's positioned exactly the same in a slower race. The guy who roared past Cacho, Morceli and Ngeny comes through 800m almost 1.5 seconds slower and allows El Guerrouj to easily gap him while passing nobody essentially.
Worth about 2 minutes quicker for comparative open time. 26:56. It is a great time, but I could see a 50 year old doing this in the next 5 to 10 years.
Worth about 2 minutes quicker for comparative open time. 26:56. It is a great time, but I could see a 50 year old doing this in the next 5 to 10 years.
He ran 29:56, with overall 100m drop over 10km, which would, in theory, augment 15-25 seconds to 29:56, so 29:11-29:21, would be the result.
This is all conjecture. Estevez is very fit for a 47 year old. Let's not take that away. A 47 year old even running 30:00-31:00 would be world class. Very few can do it.
Is he as fit as Gidey, Hassan etc based on this 28:56, and would he run a 29:00 low (like them) on the track? I think not, but that's a different story.
Who cares. If he was caught then fine, do away with him, throw him out of the sport. But if he was never caught (read: innocent 😌) then that just means he is a great competitor. Even if he used drugs, not getting caught means that you are dedicated to self improvement, and smart enough to circumvent rules. You know, like every single successful person in every single field has done.
There was literally no effective testing for EPO at the time, and Spain had a long-running state sponsored doping program for middle and long-distances. What is 'smart' about that?
Who cares. If he was caught then fine, do away with him, throw him out of the sport. But if he was never caught (read: innocent 😌) then that just means he is a great competitor. Even if he used drugs, not getting caught means that you are dedicated to self improvement, and smart enough to circumvent rules. You know, like every single successful person in every single field has done.
There was literally no effective testing for EPO at the time, and Spain had a long-running state sponsored doping program for middle and long-distances. What is 'smart' about that?
Would you say the same about Italy during their halcyon days, 1980s-1990s, Cova, Mei, Pizzolato, Bordin, Antibo, Lambruschini, etc? They were phenomenal.
There was literally no effective testing for EPO at the time, and Spain had a long-running state sponsored doping program for middle and long-distances. What is 'smart' about that?
Would you say the same about Italy during their halcyon days, 1980s-1990s, Cova, Mei, Pizzolato, Bordin, Antibo, Lambruschini, etc? They were phenomenal.
For Coevett, anyone outside the UK is a doper
This post was edited 27 seconds after it was posted.
Would you say the same about Italy during their halcyon days, 1980s-1990s, Cova, Mei, Pizzolato, Bordin, Antibo, Lambruschini, etc? They were phenomenal.
It is a downhill race. Like 100m less altitude at the finish line than the start
Not sure about the rules permitting this to be a record based on the 100 meters drop from the start line, and in any case I think that would mean his time on a flat course would be roughly 15 to 20 seconds slower so we go from 2856 to 29:11-29:16. Still good, but obviously less impressive. Sub 29:00 at age 47 really catches attention.
100m net downhill is worth more than 15-20 seconds, the maximum allowed is 10m
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