Hebron, KY group outed in AP article!

Contact a WMM event and ask if there are certain agents they won't do business with. Answer is yes. Defacto ban.

ButchTrucks wrote:

Contact a WMM event and ask if there are certain agents they won't do business with. Answer is yes. Defacto ban.

I'll take your word for it and I wouldn't be surprised. There are always tensions between organizations such as WMM and the agents who represent the best interest of their athletes.

What I'm focused on is the road race rule that says if an agent who has 2 or more athletes who test positive then that agent is banned forever. Banning agents is the job of USATF / USADA / WADA / IAAF and could rise to be criminal in some cases. From what I've read, WMM doesn't try to ban the agents even though I acknowledge that they won't work with some agents for whatever reason they may have.

I'm at the Green Bay Marathon and just finished 4th in the half to several of Mikhaylova's runners. She was in the VIP/elite area with VIP credentials and she is in the hotel where elite athletes have been put up by the race.

Why is this still happening? What can we as athletes do?

Also - Letsrunners - I am going to try to talk with her. What should I ask? Tweet at me @tylercandrews.

Ask her how she can live with her despicable self.

Three easy fixes:

RD's not pay any travel fees and increase prizes. If agent has to front the travel they probably will stay local; and make all agents pay entrance fee

Get good locals elite to enter and kick butt sub 65's is a tempo workout for elites and fourth place is not very financially lucrative - should be able to push the 30 plus "past the peak" Kenya runners into retirement they really are not very good and I would not consider them worth of elite travel money

Sell tee shirts with BAN XXXX and disgrace the RD's in front of the locals and boycott all the local businesses - of course most entrants do not list Hebron as home town

Split prize money into a pools for local runners, American runners, and elite runners with ability to claim prizes across multiple pools - instead of $3000 for first - $1000 for first, $1000 top american, $1000 top home state to attract local talent

Also CALL AND EMAIL the RD prior, during and after the race with your opinions - for Green Bay Marathon it is "For further information please call Elite Athlete Coordinator Liz Van Asten at (920) 639-5499 or email her via

elite@cellcomgreenbaymarathon.com

"

Thanks the thoughts. These are helpful.

I'm actually already in constant communication with Liz and I asked her as soon as I saw Mikhaylova at the race if she knew who she was and why she was there.

For some reason, races seem hesitant to adopt US-citizen-only money, which seems surprising to me. The reason that most races care about having elites/prize money is to draw more attention to the race, have a bigger spot on the evening news, etc., right? So, in that case, does it matter if you have a lower tier race whether it's won in 2h15 by a Kenyan who's only in the US for 2 months to race or 2h20 by a local guy? It sounds jingoistic, and I'm not saying it's the right thing, but I would think the latter would draw better press for the race. Some races are already starting to do this - splitting the pot and having SOME cash for only US Citizens, only residents of the city/state, etc. But I'm surprised that more haven't.

The simplest solution that I've heard for dealing with Mikhaylova and her skeezy group is to simply not allow runners to compete for prize money if they're associated with an agent who's had multiple doping sanctions against her athletes. Indiana Monumental is already doing this, as noted in the article at the beginning of this thread:

"When Mikhaylova emailed organizers in Indianapolis last May to enter two runners in their Monumental Mile, they responded with a copy of their new anti-doping policy. It specifies that athletes won't be eligible for prize money if they work with agents who have had two or more athletes banned."

This seems like an elegant solution, as it doesn't ban anyone from entering the race (unfair), it doesn't rely on every race having drug testing (too expensive), but it effectively bans agents with dirty track records, even if WADA/USADA/IAAF/USATF won't. Maybe that would turn it into a "hydra" problem and you'd end up with 100 Mikhaylovas, but it would at least get this one person out of the sport who has no place here.

Looks like at least one member of this group won a race in which prize money is now being withheld pending an investigation into cheating: http://www.mlive.com/sports/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2016/06/allegations_of_possible_cheati.html

Hello runners.

I notised that you are talking about me and my group a lot . What I want to say :

You are talking about doping around my club, but Why you are not complaining about US runners who has banned.

If you check the list of banned athletes,

You can find many of them .

All professional athletes are adults and they have to be responsible for what their doing and taking. This is not a kindergarten . Why their agent have to be responsible for their doping test.

Also you put incorrect info and this is not good for you guys . I do not have a lot of time to discuss but I shocked how much negative you put here.

I just want to say that all my runners are taking a test in many races and even at home and that is not their blame that someone is not clean and not honest fro

Assume this is a troll

But in case this is real, please update us on the incorrect information.

Responding to keep topic on front page - was good to see the a couple of the White Plains and Grand Prairie members knocked out of the money by some Flagstaff runners at Grandma's Marathon on Saturday.

Why are all the group's athletes now from Morristown, NJ?