How do you know michael phelps never doped? Or your 2nd place runner never doped? Yup you have no evidence!
OF course you have to blame people when things don't go your way. Maybe, just maybe, you weren't good enough?
How do you know michael phelps never doped? Or your 2nd place runner never doped? Yup you have no evidence!
OF course you have to blame people when things don't go your way. Maybe, just maybe, you weren't good enough?
The "how" is what is important with Makhloufi. In all three of his 1500m races at this Olympics, he won by a significant margin. In two of those cases, the heats, he didn't need to win, and should have been practicing the logical (and expected) strategy of conserving energy.
Does it make sense for the guy with the sixth fastest time in the field to purposely lay waste to everyone in the heats? In the 3:42 heat, I can see it, because it was extremely slow. But when you run 3:35 in a 3:36 semi-final heat loaded with talent? There's no excuse for such a flagrant waste of energy. After all, isn't that why he dropped out of the 800m? So why conserve in that case, but be wasteful elsewhere?
Round 1 - last 400m (hand timed from video)
=======
13.96
13.25
13.32
14.01
-----
54.54 (3:35.15 won by 1.4 seconds)
Round 2
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13.53
12.94
12.31
13.45
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52.23 (3:42.24 won by .68 seconds)
Round 3
=======
13.33
12.51
12.69
14.22
-----
52.77 (3:34.08 won by .71 seconds, easing up last 80m!)
Finally, I see a lot of people on here defending Makhloufi by saying the rest of the field just happened to suck. Yes, all FIVE of the guys who are faster than Mahkloufi ALL sucked, in ALL three rounds, in slow races, and in fast races. ALL of the major players sucked except a nearly unheard of Algerian who ran the final "injured", and recovers almost instantly from back-to-back 12.x surges delivered from 300m out in two of his three rounds.
MAKES PERFECT SENSE TO ME.
zack-algerie wrote:
How do you know michael phelps never doped? Or your 2nd place runner never doped? Yup you have no evidence!
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1278720-2012-olympics-us-coach-casts-doping-doubt-on-chinese-swimmers-world-recordOF course you have to blame people when things don't go your way. Maybe, just maybe, you weren't good enough?
__
If I see a relative unknown beating a very very strong field in an unlikely fashion (as this Algerian just did)it looks and smells like doping.
If I see a 16 year old girl close her race as fast as the best male swimmer in the world (as this Chinese girl did)it looks and smells like doping.
Felps has been on top of the world for a decade and beaten everyone multiple times and has been tested hundreds of times.
Maybe you can see the difference between likely and unlikely performances?
The Stache wrote:
[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?
Both Morceli and El G LOST in their first Olympic appearances. EL G LOST TWICE before he finally won a gold medal. When they won they did not decimate the ENTIRE FIELD on the last lap. The fact that Mahkloufi, who is NOT an all-time great, did this to the best runners in the world is unnatural and therefore, very suspicious.
zack-algerie wrote:
I guess people can't stand the fact that we won a medal! While a country with 1000x more resources then us stil didn't win the 1500m! Stay jealous!
Dude, no one here is jealous of God-forsaken Algeria. Yeah, you may or may not have a legitimate claim to the 1500m gold medal, but in the grand scheme of things that alone means basically nothing for your country as a whole.
If this guy turns out to be clean then you Americans are the worst bunch of whingeing sore losers who ever whinged. Ungracious is why you'll never be really great at this.
Kenyanna wrote:
If this guy turns out to be clean then you Americans are the worst bunch of whingeing sore losers who ever whinged. Ungracious is why you'll never be really great at this.
I guarantee you every distance running fan on the planet is having the same doubts, even in East Africa.
Dude, don't lump all Americans into that pile. Letsrun is a place where a lot of boys (and adults who act like little boys) can say whatever they want to without being accountable for what they say. Like noisy children, they are to be kindly tolerated but not really payed attention to.
In regards to doping: we Americans live in a glass house
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_sportspeople_in_doping_cases
and shouldn't throw stones. As a country we have a weird thing where we worship dopers who don't get caught and blame the entire problem on the few unlucky enough to fail a test.
The bottom line is that Makhloufi deserves the same treatment all other athletes get: the benefit of the doubt until there is actual evidence against him. He trains w/ a great group of athletes and had a great finish on a day when the favorites all unexpectedly tanked. He was the fastest man on the day and earned his gold medal.
Les wrote:
The Stache wrote:[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?
Both Morceli and El G LOST in their first Olympic appearances. EL G LOST TWICE before he finally won a gold medal. When they won they did not decimate the ENTIRE FIELD on the last lap. The fact that Mahkloufi, who is NOT an all-time great, did this to the best runners in the world is unnatural and therefore, very suspicious.
Morceli lost in '92 because he ran stupid and got boxed in, getting out kicked by Cacho off a slow pace. El G lost in '96 to Morceli, after getting tripped. This doesn't really prove anything. Also, I think Morceli did in fact decimate the whole field in '96.
What is just as strange or more so than Mak's dominant win is the tanking of the Kenyans and the real anamoly if you think about it...since Mak ran 3:30/1:43 this year he was true to form while those guys sucked it up.
Wow...El G giving the medals at the podium. He looks fit.
Leo looks happy on the stand. I'm so happy for him.
"god forsaken", you haven't even been there you twat
So how long before Qatar buys Makhloufi away from Algeria?
This has nothing to do with nationalism.
I, for one, think the Chinese swimmer did not dope. I think she's part of a new generation, and there's been plenty of evidence (even from Ian Thorpe) that in one's teenage years improvements are possible.
I also once witnessed cyclists exchanging needles in a parking lot - international group of cyclists.
I also believe that most of the top athletes have doped at some point or come under extreme pressure to do so.
But, I am not sure about the 1500M race and this guy and I would not make that accusation. I did see the race and thought it was mighty suspicious that all three of the Kenyans suddenly fell behind... at least 5 seconds off their previous times. The race itself and the (lack of) strategy on the part of the Kenyans really surprised me. I just couldn't believe it. The first thing that jumped to my mind was not doping but game throwing - i.e. someone paid off the Kenyans to lose. Not likely? Think again. It's really not that difficult or costly. Kenyans get a few thousand dollars for medals, combined I think it's about $20-25,000 for all three medals. (In contrast an American I think gets $25,000 for gold.) Pay them all a bit more than that -- totally possible, it's really not that much money for a nation or hell, a businessman, to shell out -- and you've got the race in the bag. Plus, you don't have to worry about doping charges.
Ben L. Wrong wrote:
Wow...El G giving the medals at the podium. He looks fit.
El G is thinking this fooking Arab is doped to the gills...
Making Arabs all look bad..fooker
Suspicious too wrote:
But, I am not sure about the 1500M race and this guy and I would not make that accusation. I did see the race and thought it was mighty suspicious that all three of the Kenyans suddenly fell behind... at least 5 seconds off their previous times. The race itself and the (lack of) strategy on the part of the Kenyans really surprised me. I just couldn't believe it. The first thing that jumped to my mind was not doping but game throwing - i.e. someone paid off the Kenyans to lose. Not likely? Think again. It's really not that difficult or costly. Kenyans get a few thousand dollars for medals, combined I think it's about $20-25,000 for all three medals. (In contrast an American I think gets $25,000 for gold.) Pay them all a bit more than that -- totally possible, it's really not that much money for a nation or hell, a businessman, to shell out -- and you've got the race in the bag. Plus, you don't have to worry about doping charges.
No, doesn't make much sense. Any pro contract is going to have a provision for medaling, which makes it much more valuable than just what your country pays you. Then once you are a medalist, you get entry into meets, more money in your next contract, and probably pick up other endorsements.
Thinking about it today, I still can't get my head around how badly Willis bombed. Why did it happen?? All I can think of was that he was looking a bit haggard (although that has been over the past few months as he's lost weight, and he's run some good times)... really gaunt and too thin for his frame maybe? Perhaps lost a bit much tone? You look at some of those other guys and they had power that he just didn't seem to have on him. Though like I say, that still doesn't explain why he couldn't match recent times, except maybe that he hasn't resolved how to finish races, which he's struggled with in the past.
Yeah, really looks like El G despises the guy.
I would like to point out how handsome I look in my victory photo. Even his majesty El G told me I looked faster than he or Seb Coe ever did. My pharmacist agrees.
common wrote:
But when you run 3:35 in a 3:36 semi-final heat loaded with talent? There's no excuse for such a flagrant waste of energy. After all, isn't that why he dropped out of the 800m? So why conserve in that case, but be wasteful elsewhere?
This is the most salient post so far.
The IAAF should reverse their earlier reversal and DQ this fraud per the "honest effort" rule.