The Official Men's 1500m Thread

113 wrote:

black armband event wrote:

4) Shunned by his fellow competitors (anyone else notice this after the race?) & isn't fooling the media either (and certainly not fooling Steve Cram)

This, to me, is the most damning. The athletes are always the first to know. There hasn't been another event on the track in which the winner was so openly shunned by the other participants and implicitly accused by the announcers.

This point cannot be overstated. Usually athletes are quick to congratulate the winner, even though they may be upset that they themselves lost. Here, basically everyone stood there and ignored him. Also, Steve Cram really seemed skeptical. He even made some comment about Seb Coe probably being confused. I know even those guys don't know for sure, but they know their stuff. If he's doping, hopefully the tests catch him. If not, or if he's not even a doper, we may have just seen the future world record holder.

[quote] If not, or if he's not even a doper, we may have just seen the future world record holder[\quote]

I hope I don't get crucified for this.

What if we are witnessing the birth of the career of the next Morceli or El G?

WTF is NBC just not going t broadcast it?

The artist formerly known as wrote:

WTF is NBC just not going t broadcast it?

It'll be at midnight again. I watched it on Youtube and went to bed.

800m coach 234 wrote:

Look Manzano is the guy that should be suspect. Just because he's American, he's not suspect? Manzano had the tenth-fastest personal best out of the 12 runners in the final and got the silver. Why are you all questioning the guy with the 5th fastest pb who got gold, but not the guy with the 10th fastest pb that got silver?

It's not the time that bothers people...it's how he destroyed the heats, and had enough energy to do so again in the final and not look winded after. That, and dropping a 25.1 mid race is a key indicator.

I think people are over-analyzing splits and times too much here. Perhaps we could give Makhloufi the benefit of the doubt. However, what makes it suspicious is just from watching the race--the only other time I've felt a similar gut reaction to the Algerian's semi and final race are Ramzi's same two races from '08. Watching his races back then, there was just something qualitatively different about how easily Ramzi dominated the field. And of course he was busted a year later. Of course I'm biased, but it has the same fishy feel this time around.

I'll echo what the others have said about the Kenyans no-showing though. That was a rather abysmal performance.

Makhloufi is a pure cheating piece of nothing. I would suggest him not compete again and if he does anyone should feel free to do whatever ;) to of him off the track. Zero olympic spirit

The Algerian nation is nothing but crap

you are right 800 coach 234,

we should be suspcious about the dude dopper american athletes who came all of a sudden from no where and having a medal at

middle and long distance

good thoughts from an individual who is taking emotion out of it and thinking about the results rationally.

800m coach 234 wrote:

Look Manzano is the guy that should be suspect. Just because he's American, he's not suspect? Manzano had the tenth-fastest personal best out of the 12 runners in the final and got the silver. Why are you all questioning the guy with the 5th fastest pb who got gold, but not the guy with the 10th fastest pb that got silver?

Makhloufi in Daegu 2011, looking strong in a slow race but then running out of gas in the final kick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vts8_XEpMT0

Something is different now.

Yes, so stick to watching the NFL where they don't test, but everyone thinks they are clean.

You could say the same thing about Rupp's performance last year in Daegu and then this year. Something is different now.

nottheonlyone wrote:

You could say the same thing about Rupp's performance last year in Daegu and then this year. Something is different now.

Rupp ran 26:48 last year though and went into the 10,000 with the third fastest PR. His progression has been much steadier over the years.

So I haven't been on letsrun in a few years, but this race got me really excited thus I logged on and was happy to find 1 1500m thread with hundreds of replies. Too bad it turned out to be nothing more than accusations of doping. Can you guys even wait 24 hours?

Glad to see nothing has changed.

I'm surprised no one has brought up another possibility, given that the times were so slow and the Kenyans and Ethiopians (especially the Kenyans) suddenly seemed much slower than in the past - I think there may have been some game throwing. It's just a suspicion, of course, but would it really be all that surprising if there had been some inside deal among a few of them? I found it extremely suspicious that the three medal hopefuls ran a full six seconds slower than their fastest times.

so if he's juicing now, why wasn't he juicing last year? why wait for the olympics and make it look more suspicious? maybe he's just having a good year

makhloufi had the 5th fastest PR in the field

he ran 3:34 in '09 and 3:32 in 2010. then 3:30.8 this year. it's not like there was some outrageous 9-second ramzi-esque drop in his times

I would like to be the first to congratulate my good friend Taoufik Makhloufi on his win. Don't let the haters get you down, Taco!

A very good analysis by Deanouk as always. Nothing to add.

Just one thing. Bile ran the last 800 1.46,0(that was more than suspicious).