Farah saying he was in France but posting a picture of Sabadell Spain

rjm33 told me to go to sleep and then name drops a person that I personally know and use to train with and if you talked to this person they will say that something dirty in elite endurance sports is going on and Spain may be a distribution center for the whole scheme.

Another top middle distance runner from the mid 90s, who many Americans here will know and was a regular top place performer at the ncaa champs (and shall remain nameless) went to Morocco to train and I remember like it was yesterday, him saying that it was the best place in the world to train (nice soft roads and tracks with perfect weather) but every one of their elite runners was doping. We were all standing around in amazement (I was the youngest) and then he began telling us about "The Dirty Triangle" where Italian doctors were organizing Spanish cyclists and North African runners using blood boosting products sourced/acquired in Spain for the tour de France and European track meets (particularly Rome and Rieti were records were regularly broken) and the Pyrenees was like Tijuana. When he told us this Morceli and Salah Hissou were already on the scene but i'm not sure about El G. But it also includes Miguel Indurain etc Looking back its amazing how true his comments were.

Take a look at who was training in Albuquerque, N.M a few years ago... before Dr. Leonid Shvetsov went back to Russia to 'coach' Russian runners.

Paula Radcliffe did her buildup in Albuquerque prior to her 2:15:25 world record at the London marathon in 2003. The blood tests from that race have never been released by Paula even though she said she would release them.

Gabriela Szabo, Morceli, Khalid Skah, and many other runners trained there.

http://www.golobos.com/news/2007/8/30/209057656.aspx

http://www.coachnorrie.co.za/?p=205

What fun!

Oh yes, that definitely proof of something. Well done Sherlock.

pattern spotter wrote:

Oh yes, that definitely proof of something. Well done Sherlock.

It is just a coincidence.

How about some more history:

1972-B.Ekblum,et al. Response to Exercise after Blood Loss and Reinfusion.Journal of Applied Physiology.1972 Aug;33(2):175-80. publishes about hemoglobin changes and exercise performance changes after blood transfusions. In the same year, Lasse Viren wins the 5k and 10k gold at the Olympics, and repeats both wins in the 1976 Olympics. There were suspicions of transfusions by the Finns, but we will never know for sure.

1976-Waldemar Cierpinski cheats to win gold medal for East Germany over my hero Frank Shorter, who I believe deserves two gold medals.

1980-Cierpinski again wins marathon. Kaarlo Maaninka of Finland wins silver in 10k and bronze in 5k, and is found to have done blood transfusions.

1982-Francesco Conconi of Italy publishes journal articles about the anaerobic threshold, with variations on the CONCONI test being done to this day on runners and cyclists...

1984-Allberto Cova of Italy wins 10k Olympic gold…and did blood transfusions...,Marti Vainio of Finland wins silver in 10k,but is caught with anabolic steroid metenolone, which was possibly in his old stored blood which he transfused before the race, but forgot he was on metenolone when the blood was withdrawn for storage…not a very smart doper, was he?

Meanwhile, it is discovered that one third of the US Cycling team at the Olympics, which won 9 medals, were doing blood transfusions...

1985-blood transfusions are declared illegal and banned...but there is no test for detection..

1987-New England Journal of Medicine publishes trial of recombinant EPO called Epogen, made by the biotech firm Amgen. Amgen ironically goes on to be a major sponsor of the cycling Tour of California, where many of the riders are using its EPO product…

1987 - 5 Dutch cyclists die.

1988- 2 Dutch cyclists die. 1 Belgian cyclist dies.

1988- Dr. Francesco Conconi publishes a study on serum EPO levels in cross-country skiers:

1988-Salvatore Antibo from Italy..wins Olympic silver in 10k and Gelindo Bordin wins the gold medal in the marathon, and also wins Boston in 1990.

1989-Epogen approved by FDA for use in US

1989-EPO moves into cycling in a big way. 5 more Dutch cyclists die.

1990- 2 more Dutch cyclists die and 3 more Belgian cyclists die.

1990- IOC bans EPO, but there is no test for detection of EPO.

1990-1991- track has 3 to 5 sub 13:10 5k perfomers and/or performances per year..

1991- Dr. Gabriele Rosa arrives in Kenya and sets up his first training camp.

1992- Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes of Spain(of later Operation Puerto fame) is a doctor in Spain as Fermin Cacho wins the 1500m at the Barcelona Olympics. Dieter Baumann wins the 5k and Khalid Skah wins the 10k.

1993-14 men break 13:10 a total of 21 times!!! while the Chinese women go on a rampage with Wang Junxia 29:31.78 10k WR, 8:06.11 3k WR, that still stand to this day

1993 -2000-rampant EPO use..no test for detection..records smashed, huge depth of fast times by many people in track and cycling. Cyclists like Pantani and Riis pushing their hematocrits up to dangerous levels of 60 or 65%.. Cycling finally institutes a hematocrit cutoff limit max hematocrit of 50% or you can't race...cyclists respond by basically all of them then having hematocrits of 48-49.5%, just a coincidence that they are all just below the limit...right?

A protege of the Italian Dr. Conconi, mentioned previously, went on to become much more famous..his name was Dr. Michele Ferrari, and he was the doctor to the stars of pro cycling, most of all, he was doctor to Lance Armstrong, who is the prototype for a pharmaceutical experiment gone mad disguised as an athlete..They did everything...EPO,transfusions, the anabolic steroid testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, and probably other things we don't even know about. What a name! You can't make this stuff up...the mad genius Dr. Ferrari really did turn his riders into Ferraris, with extra horsepower!!!..., He also did a great job making sure that 1) he kept Lance alive and didn't kill him. and 2) that he somehow passed his drug tests. It was probably Ferrari that pioneered taking EPO by iv instead of subcutaneous injection, so that the EPO could be cleared faster, and the window for a positive epo test was then very small. A very smart guy who is presently in trouble with tax authorities for hiding large amounts of money in secret bank accounts, and he is also banned for life from cycling...

2000-first urine tests for epo appear around this time, not sure when, and the test improved by around 2005..The new test for EPO leads athletes back to the old method of blood transfusions, to avoid detection...

2004-Italian Stefano Baldini wins gold medal in marathon. American Tyler Hamilton is caught doing a homologous blood tranfusion of someone else's blood at the Olympics, where he won the gold medal. His B test at the Olympics had problems and he kept the medal on a technicality, but finally returned the medal in 2011. His lawyers used the famous "Tyler is a human chimera with a vanishing twin" defense to explain why he had blood from two different people in his bloodstream.. which wins the comedy prize for funniest doping excuse ever!!!

2006- Operation Puerto with Dr. Fuentes and 200 bags of blood, steroids.

2008-CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator) , a new longer acting agent, with a much longer half-life 20x longer than epo, is appoved for use in Jan, 2008 under the name Mircera. Rashid Ramzi tests positive for CERA at the 2008 Olympics, and loses his gold medal...

2009-2015-development of EPO mimetic peptides such as peginesatide and CNTO530 and development of orally active Hypoxia-Inducible Factor(HIF) stabilizers. You can just take a pill which works like EPO. The Company Fibrinogen has compounds FG2216,FG4592, and FG4497, which stabilize HIF by inhibiting the enzyme prolyl-hydroxylase, which is involved in the breakdown of HIF by the ubiquitin proteosome pathway. HIF is a transcription factor which increases the gene expression of about 200 different genes, including the gene for EPO. So increased levels of HIF-1 alpha signals cells in the kidney to increase transcription of Erythropoietin(EPO), which travels to the bone marrow and binds to progenitor cells, and increases erythropoiesis, the production of new red blood cells, which is how HIF stabilizers work.

Another compound involved with HIF is cobalt chloride, which also acts as a HIF stabilizer, is orally active, but is not recommended, as it is toxic to the gastrointestinal system, thyroid, heart, liver and kidney and may cause cancer. There is now a blood test to test for cobalt levels.

Other recent research is looking at inhalation of the noble gases Argon, Xenon, and Krypton as HIF activators of erythropoiesis. They have been used by Russian athletes. The compounds have recently been banned and there is now a test for them.The cheaters are always finding new ways to cheat and the testers are always trying to find new ways to test.

For further reading..check out: Simon Beuck,et al. Hypoxia-inducible factor stabilizers and other small-molecule erythropoiesis stimulating agents in current and preventive doping analysis. Drug Testing and Analysis 2012 Nov;4(11):830-45., from their special issue on Sports Drug Testing for Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents and Autologous Blood Transfusion. There are many interesting articles in this issue.

So that brings us to today, Dec. 2015. Dr.Gabriele Rosa from 1991 in Kenya now has a son Dr. Frederico Rosa, who still works with top Kenyan runners today in Kenya, and used to work with Claudio Berardelli, Rita Jeptoo, and other Kenyans.

And we forgot Turkey (Altepkin 2012 Olympic 1500m gold-gone now) and all the Russians, and all their positives ,and all the destroyed samples, and the leaked 12 year database of blood tests that nobody can see, and Paula's tests that nobody can see...and Dr. Saugy turning up over and over, from Lance to Paula (her "blood test expert") to destroyed Russian samples .... and Seppelt's documentary, which Lord Seb Coe says he hasn't seen... to IAAF corruption, bribes at IAAF and in Kenya, head of anti-doping at IAAF arrested, and head of IAAF arrested, and maybe covered up tests... or just no testing at all or no followup in other cases...and Lord Coe tells us he doesn't know ANYTHING about any of this while he has been vice-president under Lamine Diack for like eight years.... and he calls Ashenden "a so-called expert...Give me a break".

I say give us.... the people who value integrity and honesty...give us a break... from this perpetual game of How to win in track and field by cheating, which has been going strong for over 40 years... and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

To infinity and beyond...

TLDR

OCC testing wrote:

It doesn't matter one bit. The tester must be told where he is at all times. Otherwise, the ability to test without warning is lost. One more missed test and Farah gets banned. No positive test needed.

No to "One more missed test and Farah gets banned": the three missed tests have to be within 18 months to cause a ban. Since those two missed tests "expired" a while ago, he can ignore the testers again.

For background info see for example here:

Our sport is dirty, but I will say this the likes of Bolt and Mo etc are either using a doping regime that is sophisticated beyond our wildest dreams or they are more simplistic or basic then we think i.e. they might use a few patches for short durations every couple of years.

Metric Miler wrote:

TLDR

It's good reading.

i thought the Farah PR statement today was a bit confusing.That said, has anyone found a list of runners who were present in Sabadell and all runners competing now who ever ran under Aden? It seems like that is the most straightforward thing to investigate right now.

Taway wrote:

Metric Miler wrote:

TLDR

It's good reading.

Mope Dealer wrote:

Our sport is dirty, but I will say this the likes of Bolt and Mo etc are either using a doping regime that is sophisticated beyond our wildest dreams or they are more simplistic or basic then we think i.e. they might use a few patches for short durations every couple of years.

The BBC Panorama 'expose' on NOP had the presenter micro-dosing EPO, improving his performance and passing doping tests.

I don't have more details than that, but it does suggest that huge sophistication is not required to remain 'clean'.

Here is a list of people that train at Sabadell from a new Spanish article:

http://www.ecestaticos.com/file/753ecfdec678bb9afa388efae5766386/1466790509.svg

Mo Farah is on the list.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Los Mossos ya tenían algo casi personal contra Aden. En 2015 intentaron una operación similar pero no consiguieron indicios suficientes. Entonces, cuando ya acababa el 'stage' de pretemporada, y un grupo de atletas iba en coche hacia Font Romeu, a entrenar en altura en la clásica estación deportiva francesa, un control de tráfico aparentemente rutinario cerca del túnel del Cadí paró el coche y requisó unos inyectables que llevaban. Las muestras fueron enviadas discretamente a Lausana (Suiza), pero no había EPO ni sustancias dopantes, sino recuperadores endovenosos, algo permitido. Aun así, los atletas no sospecharon y al año siguiente regresaron.

Font Romeu is mentioned in the article.

http://www.elconfidencial.com/deportes/atletismo/2016-06-26/dopaje-sabadell-jama-aden-operacion-rial-mossos-doping_1222935/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=%5BECTwitterNocheAutomatico%5D

https://www.facebook.com/hypo2/photos/a.181731141864880.32731.154386924599302/999936883377631/?type=3&theater

It is just a coincidence.

Let's see what Farah's PR firm (Freud's Communications) comes up with to help him cover his tracks. They have to pretend they didn't release the Mo wasn't there statement they wrote for him. Mo's word he wasn't there was taken as golden. Well . . . some people have already figured out Mo has some trouble with proper explanations.

I've been busy clerking the last week. Not that I would be able to add anything, the evidence speaks for itself, but posters here have done a great job explaining its implications.

And here I thought I would be back to weigh in on some 10 year old blood bags in Spain.

I'll bring up one point, as a lot has been covered. Svetsov is now a private coach, and not part of the Russian Federation. He coaches some Russians, Ukrainians, and one or two other Eastern Europeans from what I remember; he is not connected to, or investigated as part of, the Russian Federation doping. Bummer

Please note that Robbie Fitzgibbon and Charlie Grice are NOT on the list of athletes that have authorization to train in Sabadell.

You're right cleans, after watching that I personally thought it was obvious that was how many were cheating. But the BBC could've covered more. Have a look at the photo on Twitter with Ryan Sissons (I think his brother/cousin was in my class at high school), MO did 10x1000m in Font Romeu. Very interesting!

cleans wrote:

The BBC Panorama 'expose' on NOP had the presenter micro-dosing EPO, improving his performance and passing doping tests.

I don't have more details than that, but it does suggest that huge sophistication is not required to remain 'clean'.

+1

With regards to EPO, it comes in steps. 20 years ago, you could use it as you wanted to. Post 2000, you couldn't go blindly all out anymore because of the first test. Post 2005, you'd also have to time it right because of the improved test. Post 2009, you have to "micro-dose" to not get caught by the ABP.

Unless you'd bribe the IAAF or possibly are needed by the IAAF or are best buddy of the IAAF, then of course you can dope as you wish, without any sophistication.

So - not considering the bribing stories, one can see a tendency of decreased EPO usage over time, more or less coinciding with decreasing performance over different distances and gender. There are of course little peaks here or there, e.g. caused by extreme talents, introduction of CERA and whatnot, and the briberies, but certain correlations remain.

So far in this decade, almost no world records were achieved on the track. Coincidence, rjm and rekrunner? I only recall the woman's 1500 by G. Dibaba, trained by Jama...

Nice story. Judging by world records, I guess only about a dozen East Africans took EPO in the 1990's and 2000's, catching the western world completely off guard. It mirrors exactly what happened in cycling.

This decade, much of the talent has moved from the track to the roads.

IAAF World records set since 2010:

Mens track:

110m hurdles, 800m, 25000m, 30000m, decathlon, 50000m walk, 4x100m relay, 4x200m relay, distance medley relay, 4x1500m relay

Men's road:

10km, 15km, 20km+half, 25km, 30km, marathon, 20km walk, 50km walk

Women's track:

1500m, 4x100m, distance medley relay, 4x1500m relay

Women's road:

15km+20km+half, 25km, 20km walk

Mope Dealer wrote:

Our sport is dirty, but I will say this the likes of Bolt and Mo etc are either using a doping regime that is sophisticated beyond our wildest dreams or they are more simplistic or basic then we think i.e. they might use a few patches for short durations every couple of years.

It's easier then that. It's called "never tested positive." A positive from them is viewed as too much damage to the various stakeholders in the sport.

It's what happened with Armstrong and Radcliffe. Positive scores are no problem. Just use one of many ways around the positive.

rekrunner wrote:

Nice story. Judging by world records, I guess only about a dozen East Africans took EPO in the 1990's and 2000's, catching the western world completely off guard. It mirrors exactly what happened in cycling.

This decade, much of the talent has moved from the track to the roads.

Well, the statistics back me up, or more precisely, back up the timeline of the EPO tests and ABP. It is somewhat saddening, but nothing new.

As for the East Africans: yes they dominate the world records. That is likely a combination of increasingly professional training in Africa (well documented), fewer out-of-competition tests (also well documented), better talent (somewhat documented), larger drive (prize money >> average income), fewer and less attractive alternatives (unlike basketball, football, soccer here or in the UK), less fast food, fewer cars etc. I would not use that observation to argue about EPO. Furthermore, lots of national records from European countries are getting older and older.

In any case, this is what I found regarding world records in 5-year increments - please feel free to correct any errors:

Men's World Records

Distance: 81 - 85 / 86 - 90 / 91 - 95 / 96 - 00 / 01 - 05 / 06 - 10 / 11 - 15

.100 m: 1 / 2 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 4 / 0

.200 m: 0 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 2 / 0

.400 m: 0 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0

.800 m: 1 / 0 / 0 / 3 / 0 / 2 / 1

1500 m: 4 / 0 / 2 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0

5000 m: 3 / 1 / 3 / 3 / 1 / 0 / 0

10000m: 1 / 1 / 4 / 4 / 2 / 0 / 0

Half M: 5 / 3 / 4 / 4 / 2 / 5 / 0

Marath: 3 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 3

Women's World Records

Distance 81 - 85 / 86 - 90 / 91 - 95 / 96 - 00 / 01 - 05 / 06 - 10 / 11 - 15

.100 m: 4 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

.200 m: 1 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

.400 m: 3 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

.800 m: 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

1500 m: 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1

5000 m: 5 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 0

10000m: 7 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Half M: 5 / 1 / 3 / 3 / 0 / 1 / 2

Marath: 6 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 4 / 0 / 0

Personally I find the increasing amount of 0s in the last couple of years as telling as frustrating, in particular in case of the ladies. You have somewhat of a point regarding the road races, but even there: a total of 13 world records over the last ten years in men's and women's half and full marathon combined don't make up for the lack of improvement over 5,000 and 10,000 meters (only 3!, which all were from Ethiopians).

For comparison I count in the ten years before that (96 - 05), e.g. after EPO became well-established but was still very poorly tested for:

Men's + women's half + full marathon: 19 (vs. the above-mentioned 13)

Men's + women's 5000 + 10000: 13 (vs. the above-mentioned 3)

The 0s for the shorter women's competitions are even more telling of doping in the good old times (though less EPO-related of course). The only exception there, i.e., the only world record in the last 20 years from 100 - 1500 m, is Genzebe D. No further comment.

All trolling fun aside, I really can't fathom how anyone can still (pretend to) believe in clean athletics. Note also that quite a few of the above listed world records came from runners later convicted of doping. Or covered up, e.g. Carl Lewis. Or highly suspected, e.g. Flo, Junxia and Michael Johnson - I won't mention your idol here, no worries.