Cheptegei was running clean as he was such an emphatic young man previously. He worships our Lord and I’ve seen him blessing and gracing village events and being a shining example to the village kids. Cheptegei couldn’t have been doping. I’ve seen him train and run and he a real talent.
I’m pretty sure he was clean. The Ugandans have had a sensible trajectory in the sport. Good legs/body and good genes, altitude, nutrition, no smartphones initially for the childhood and teenager years so they have the neurophysiology to withstand high level training and racing. They are strong due to their roots.
The Brojos called me 'stupid' on a couple of occasions for denying that East Africans have a genetic advantage. Of course it pains them to see white guys winning as soon as a modicum of anti-doping is introduced to those regions.
They do have a genetic advantage that provides from their slick calves, right waists and hollow bird bone. It’s their sacred ancestry blessed by the Abrahamic God. God gave them this genetic advantage to overpower and defeat oppressive white mayors. This is true. It’s not due to EPO.
You know Coevett is obsessed with East African body morphology and physical constitution. He has been fixated on East Africans for a good number of years and proclaiming against any genetic advantage. But has yet to start a specialty in unaclnowledged special access targeting program via RF weapons. For Jimmy, a white bloke to win a championships 10k race shows that we are now at a point where the world is so targeted by RF weapons that distance physiology has been turned upside down and the pecking order reversed and white blokes could actually win.
What was the winning time? 28:55 or something. That's exactly the kind of race that would redound to the benefit of Gressier, with his wicked kick. Wikipedia lists Cheptegai's 1500 as 3:37. I don't know if that's correct, but I wouldn't assume that he could kick as well Gressier off of a slow pace. Didn't you watch the Steeplechase and 1500 in Tokyo? Slow races allow kickers like Gressier to win.
You might say, "Well Cheptegai isn't an idiot. He wouldn't have let the pace dawdle so much." Maybe but (1) even in a relatively fast race, Gressier's kick is excellent as he showed in the Tokyo 5000; and (2) if Cheptegai had been there and had pushed the pace, serving as the de facto rabbit for the other competitors would have greatly undermined his chances of winning. it's hard to be the guy up in the front.
I will also point out that Cheptegai defeated Aregwai and Fisher by less than half a seond last year in Paris. Gressier demolished both those guys in Tokyo.
I really don’t think the race would be close even if the pace was slow. Chep has shown to have a superior kick minus missing the jump at the Tokoyo OG, where he was still closing fast on Barega. His kick is wildly underrated and he’s been blasting everyone by taking control at 500 meters out. No offense to JG but this one is an easy W for Cheptegei.
Cheptegei made a tactical error in Tokyo. He should have won that. Barega can’t kick as well he just surprised everyone with his accelerator and took advantage of Cheptegei being boxed in. God knows why Cheptegei allowed himself to be boxed in. If he had just ran to the script of the 2019 Doha race he would have easily won. For some reason he couldn’t decide if he wanted to go right to the front and lead or stay just behind the leaders. He though doesn’t kick as well as Bekele who was always closing 53.02 on a need-to basis. If he wasn’t threatened he would just close in 56 like at 09 Berlin. Note that Bekele was closing 53 flat despite not being pressed by anyone close while Cheptegei was only closing in 55 flat in Doha 2019 despite being stalked by Kejelcha. In terms of talent Cheptegei is one rung below Bekele and the other earlier 10k greats like Geb. We thought Cheptegei was good but we actually relaxed our standards and went down slippery slope. We keep slipping to accommodate ever more terribly untalented athletes because we rationalize that they represent the best of this era. Soon one day our men will be running 32minutes for 10k at the championships and we will still make excuses for them and call them legendary and right up there with Bekele and Geb.
We do this so that we can keep selling this sport and attract more gullible young idiots to participate and follow our sport. It’s all business I guess but at the core of the sport it’s fked up quality.
Gressier is a great runner. He has improved steadily year after year, and his results this year from winter through July were extremely solid: 4 5ks between 12:51 and 12:57–2 outdoors, 1 indoors and 1 on the roads—and range from 1500 in 3:32.71 to half marathon in 59:45 (for the win).
In late August and September, Gressier reached the approximate level of peak Fisher or peak Nico Young; I’m guessing he was in 12:44-12:48 type 5k shape. Unfortunately for the Americans, they ran their best races of the year in February and June respectively. Gressier had his moment at the right time. Some posters here have questioned his breakthrough, saying it’s suspicious, and I saw someone compare him to Mo Farah and his later career sudden ascendancy. I don’t think it’s gonna turn into that, I think Gressier is going to be one of many strong medal contenders at 5k/10k over the next few years, and he timed his peak perfectly this year and took advantage of a wide open field.
Strange you suddenly switched allegiance to France? Aren’t you supposed to be known for strong bias and favoritism towards America athletes? Jimmy has enough French followers on LRC to dignify him so you can just let your American fervour reign over you?
I guess you failed to understand that the basic point the tweet shows is that there is PED use among Ugandan distance runners.
No his basic point was Cheptegei switched focus to the roads due to more AIU scrutiny on the track. His theory was poorly supported.
Just to clarify there is no PED use among the pioneering generation of Uganda runners starting with Stephen Kiprotich in 2012 followed by Kiplimo and Cheptegei in 2016-2017. The PED users were subsequent generations of smartphone addicted young Ugandans who got brain manipulated by the RF from their phone to try PEDs. Geb was offered PED yearly from 1992-2000 but he didn’t yield to it because his Neanderthal brain was so original and unspoiled from the RF waves to be able to be tempted to try them.
But let's not forget that the Europeans and Americans used to beat Gressier too, all the way through 2024. So Gressier winning can't really be traced back to increased testing in Africa since 2024, not to mention the fact that no one so far has shown increased testing in Africa since 2024.
The increase has been where the men have been competing abroad. Of course it hasn’t really increased in Africa. Their ‘systems’ such as they are, are built on avoiding tests, substituting samples whenever possible, relying on greased palms via shoe companies and more. The results on the men’s side the past couple of years show this “theory” to be gaining traction. Increase the scrutiny and apply the same to the women while honestly ferreting out crooked officials and the sport will be on the way to being cleaner.
No doubt some rotten eggs exist in Kenya but well respected Renato believes the majority of Kenyans are clean. If they aren’t it’s not their fault but always the blame of their crook agents and managers who may spike their drinks and food with PED. Or massage it into them. Rural Kenyans are uneducated and are bad af math, physics, chemistry, geography, only good at running. They can be easily tricked by their managers and agents to do drugs. Rural people tend to be quite innocent and don’t know the dirty side of this world. They can be very trusting but that’s just because they themselves hold to the same very high trustworthy standards. Their managers and agents are urbanized thus corruptible.