But NO-ONE runs their fastest at 16. Come on, this is ridiculous. But sometimes, it takes something as obviously silly as this for organisations like the IAAF to actually take notice and do something about it.
If you can't produce a birth certificate, why should you be eligible to run in World Youth or World Junior competition? Lying about your age in order to beat legitimate junior athletes is just as morally bankrupt as using PEDS to beat clean athletes.
It was not a junior meet (U20). It was a youth meet (U18). I wonder how many young kids will quit track when they see what they have to race against. Something needs to be done to prevent false performances discouraging young, developing athletes.
There are guys running the 800m at the World Masters Athletics Championships with better hairlines than that guy. Measure the distance of your hairline from your eyebrows, consider your age. Look at photos of when you were younger, notice a difference. Now look at photos of the "youth" 800m winner's hairline. He has been an fully developed adult for several years to have lost that much hair.
villiageidiot wrote:
http://www.talk.dyestat.com/showthread.php?t=82091&page=2The Kenyan who ran for UTEP with the changing birthday was Joseph Nzau.
I think the general jist of the story regarding Nzau attempting to skirt the rules on both ends is true but Joseph Nzau attended Wyoming not UTEP.
IAAF to crack down on age cheating BAMBOUS, Mauritius (Reuters) - Age cheating will be treated with the same seriousness as doping, the head of the world athletics governing body said on Thursday.
"We shall treat the matter with the same seriousness as doping," Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) told reporters in Mauritius at the 15th African championships.
He was referring to recent cases of cheating by two Kenyans, Thomas Longorisiwa and Emmanuel Chamer, who obtained passports bearing fake ages with the intention of taking part in the World Junior Championships in Beijing from August 15-20.
Longorisiwa was arrested and charged while Chamer was let off after owning up. Both athletes dropped out of the event.
Two other Kenyan-born athletes now representing Bahrain were also arrested in June and briefly held before being released.
They allegedly changed their ages to participate in last year's World Youth Championships in Morocco and junior races at the 2005 World Cross Country Championships in France.
"This is an eyesore for our sport. We are gathering further information and we shall certainly make a decision to suspend the culprits after exhausting the process," Diack said.
"We need the full support of the government and the Kenyan federation to curb this cheating. We will investigate the athletes' managers and the Kenyan federation officials to get to the bottom of this," he added.
As predicted, this thread on the accomplishment of black runners has devolved into undocumented assertions of cheating regarding ages.
VIPAM wrote:
Leonard could very well be a 16 yrs old or he could be a age cheat; however, to say that he is an age cheat just because Kenyans or Africans before him has done so is stupid. IAAF isn't the YMCA I'm sure they work on catching such cheats and improving techniques to identify false documents and the IAAF have no problem in denying athlete(s) participation in age appropiate competitions if proved guilty!
Why to cover five pages on Letsrun.com about a sport that has been an utter farce for almost two decades, and whose popularity in the developed world has been declining every year?
Dear Uncle Boob,
You do realize that nearly all of us that are complaining about age cheats could care less whether the color of their skin is black, white, green or purple.
A cheat is a cheat. The fact that all those eastern Europeans got away with cheating for all those years in the 70's and early 80's pisses me off to this day. (insert Kratochvílova here).
Now if you want to believe that ANY 16 year old is capable of 1:44.08, I have some land I'd like to sell to you.
A "13 year-old" Kenyan has run a 3.36 1500m. It's a ratified age record.
That source is full of errors. Even if he ran 3:36 (his PB is actually 3:44 according to the IAAF), it would not be a "ratified" age-group record.BTW Malcom East did not run the listed times as a master.
IAAF is a joke wrote:
A "13 year-old" Kenyan has run a 3.36 1500m. It's a ratified age record.
http://www.apulanta.fi/matti/yu/aars_Men
The Old UncleD wrote:
Dear Uncle Boob,
You do realize that nearly all of us that are complaining about age cheats could care less whether the color of their skin is black, white, green or purple.
A cheat is a cheat. The fact that all those eastern Europeans got away with cheating for all those years in the 70's and early 80's pisses me off to this day. (insert Kratochvílova here).
Now if you want to believe that ANY 16 year old is capable of 1:44.08, I have some land I'd like to sell to you.
Great! Lets start the bidding at $24.99
How about the 11 year old that ran 28:26 for 10K!11y 10m 4322 28:26.31 Nobuyuki Sato JPN 1984-06-09 1972-08-08
IAAF is a joke wrote:
A "13 year-old" Kenyan has run a 3.36 1500m. It's a ratified age record.
http://www.apulanta.fi/matti/yu/aars_Men
Cheating is cheating. Doping,age fraud, gender fraud.
IAAF is getting soft. They need to put the hammer down and bust these cheats.
You wan't to know the REAL reason why t&f dropped off a cliff in the 90s? Africans intimidating us at youth meets by committing AGE FRAUD.
Rec Runner x wrote:
bguyj2009 wrote:okay, but are u a black Kenyan? blacks from different parts of the world look quite different. to the average kenyan, the guy probably looks like the other 16 year olds from the poor areas.
No, I am not a kenyan. I am a descendant of slaves and have no idea what part of africa I was originally brought from.
Now to business, I have come in to contact with all types of black people, whether they be african or african-american, at my all-black high school or even track meets.
There is a discernible feature of all 16 year-olds and that is a fleshy face. This guy's face is so pronounced, he's probably 27. His eyes have crow's feet and there are obvious hollow marks on his face which are never apparent on a 16 year old. Look at Bekele at 18 in the 5000 racing El G (it's on youtube), then look at this guy.
I make no claims as to this guy's age. I am only pointing out that he bears more of a liking to more 30 year old african than he does to a 16-year old one.
Case Closed.
First, this post is ridiculous...but as to his age. I'm not saying he is or isn't of the correct age, but everyone matures at a different rate, and any athlete who holds an age group record is likely more mature and older looking than his peirs.
I know the PC crowd will filet me for posting this, but I'll add my 2 cents any way. I have a friend who is from Kenya (in his youth he trained with some famous guys) who states his real age and his "official age" which is 4 years younger. It happens quite often. Although not all of it is intentional cheating. Some just don't truly know their age and are convinced it is fine to take this "opportunity".
gebrucilassie wrote:
I know the PC crowd will filet me for posting this, but I'll add my 2 cents any way. I have a friend who is from Kenya (in his youth he trained with some famous guys) who states his real age and his "official age" which is 4 years younger. It happens quite often. Although not all of it is intentional cheating. Some just don't truly know their age and are convinced it is fine to take this "opportunity".
Which is all irrelevant - it is up to the Federations (Kenya, Ethiopia,,etc.) to ensure that their representatives are in fact of legal age for the appropriate competition or the federation should face some sort of sanction. i.e. if it is found out that athletes ages are "manipulated" that the federation forfeits the right to participate at said competitions. Perhaps then they might think twice about entering athletes without legitimate paperwork that most other countries consider the minimum of legal records-keeping (authentic and independently verifiable birth certificates).