Rita Jeptoo tests positive

El Keniano wrote:

I see coach Claudio Berardelli and manager Federico Rosa wasted no time in throwing her under the bus, backing up over her and leaving her to fend for herself against the hyenas.

You are probably referring to this comment.

If the story of Rita can be the key to open the door of the dirty system, please let Rita pay for it.

I agree that was harsh, and yet people on this thread condeming Berardelli are being even more harsh, throwing her and him under the bus. What happened to humanity? What if this happened to someone very close to you who you cared about deeply, and would not throw them under the bus?

The point is, first we should find out what happened, and then show humanity to the victim and stand up for her/him, whoever it is.

In this instance and similar ones, I see Rita Jeptoo as being the victim, first because of the great chance she did nothing at all wrong, but by accusing her you are all doing a great wrong! This is what I believe.

There are other possibilities.

For sure, those who are most responsible are those who produce, promote, and hold the drugs to be more important than the people they are victimizing with their use! These are the perpetrators who should be held accountable, instead of this they are giving positions of authority and doing the tests, the wolves who are guarding the hen house!

The point is, don't criticize someone tossing someone else under the bus, when you are doing the same thing.

Instead of that, let's start looking out for each other.

Good point. We all have challenges, though. I do not earn my living from running, but it is not as if I am on easy street. I have some savings, but pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. A few weeks ago, just prior to payday I had $2.20 in my checking account. We all have our challeneges--whatever they may be (monetary, physical, emotional, and such)--and we have to try to do the best with what we have.

I hear you, J.R. Indeed, they have hearts, minds, and souls. I wish Jeptoo the best, but, if it is what it seems to be, then it is a tragedy and a black eye on the sport. In regard to the "faith" you mention, I would say that faith in people is a tricky thing, especially when it is in people that we do not know very well (or at all). I have faith in God, and make an effort to have faith in people, but when this faith in people is tested, as it has been in endurance sports, then this faith in people (or people of this particular group) may erode.

Could Rita convince you? What if she decides to get real and explain what actually happened? A needle doesn't just get into your body by accident. She knows what happened. If it came from Beradelli and/or Rosa, she should lay it all out. But, what if she says her boyfriend / husband brought her to a doctor for help with fatigue she was feeling from heavy training? Just a little B12 and iron supplementation. All perfectly legal and safe, until it isn't. Ask anyone who knows about the parasitic men she has around her. Do you think she will give a full account of what happened, or will she continue to call her accusers liars and say she is confused?

El Keniano wrote:

If Rita's confirmed to have doped, no one can convince me these two didn't abet and facilitate the cheating. AK should have them thrown out of the country.

Excellent questions.

Keep in mind, you don't need needles anymore to get certain ESA's in the body. A lot has changed in the last 10 years (on the ESA front), and yet, nothing has really changed at all has it?

I'm not saying she is innocent, but it's now easier than ever to take an oral supplement from your manager or coach that is actually an ESA. Old school injectable EPO is dirt cheap. The new oral ESA's are pricey, but well within reason for the top athletes or well-off amateurs.

Rift Raff wrote:

I see Kimetto as a "Miracle Man"...who performed the miracle of convincing me that the top Kenyans are as dirty as the Russian women.

Unfortunately you are spot on here. Spotted as having potential, gullible and groomed by manager / coach and you end up with 2.02 all in 4 years.

sympathy for the diablo wrote:

Keep in mind, you don't need needles anymore to get certain ESA's in the body. A lot has changed in the last 10 years (on the ESA front), and yet, nothing has really changed at all has it?

http://www.nephrologynews.com/articles/110141-new-alternatives-in-anemia-treatment-biosimilars-and-hif-stabilizers

I'm not saying she is innocent, but it's now easier than ever to take an oral supplement from your manager or coach that is actually an ESA. Old school injectable EPO is dirt cheap. The new oral ESA's are pricey, but well within reason for the top athletes or well-off amateurs.

Thank you for the link.

If I read it well, HIF stabilisers can be taken in oral form, not artificial EPO, right? If the report is accurate, she was caught for EPO, specifically. On the other hand, I understand there's been long-lived versions of EPO for at least a decade now (Mircera), and you probably don't need to get an injection more than once a month now. Except a massive monthly dose may be easy to detect. Anyway, how would we know about the latest stuff, tests and countermeasures?

grox wrote:

Thank you for the link.

If I read it well, HIF stabilisers can be taken in oral form, not artificial EPO, right? If the report is accurate, she was caught for EPO, specifically. On the other hand, I understand there's been long-lived versions of EPO for at least a decade now (Mircera), and you probably don't need to get an injection more than once a month now. Except a massive monthly dose may be easy to detect. Anyway, how would we know about the latest stuff, tests and countermeasures?

Point being, we don't know everything that is in clinical trials. Also, if WADA says someone is caught for EPO they may be dumbing it down for the masses as opposed to saying caught for AKB-6548, which then only serves to get a bunch of athletes excited about acquiring that new substance.

It's highly unlikely Jeptoo would have used CERA, but you are right it's only needed 1-2x per month. Ricco, a cyclist, got busted at the tour for it 5-6 years ago I think and I haven't heard of too many other big names using it since then.

I know for sure people are using AKB-6548, as I was offered it online about a year ago. Around $1000-1500 would have been enough for an 8 week buildup before a key race.

With the internet, anything is available with a bit of research. People are naive to think it's hard to acquire this stuff. Old school EPO is especially easy to come by and affordable for just about anyone that scrape an extra $300-500 together. Do you get the Garmin 620 or a cycle of EPO to take 10 seconds per mile off whatever race you are peaking for?

From the voice of Rod Sterling:

"Abbot Laboratories, THE FIRST Title Sponsor of the World Marathon Majors, is an American pharmaceuticals and health care products company. The global healthcare company that conducts innovative research

Taking on the moniker of the word meaning "Father", Abbot's international headquarters are located in....CHICAGO.

(que in Twilight Zone music: "doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo")

The voice of Rod Sterling: wrote:

From the voice of Rod Sterling:

"Abbot Laboratories, THE FIRST Title Sponsor of the World Marathon Majors, is an American pharmaceuticals and health care products company. ...

At least it wasn't Big Tobacco.

Rosa has been doing this for nearly 20 years

since the good doctor left european cycling under a doping cloud and setup a new operation in kenya

I'm shocked by this bad news. I was Rita's coach from her beginning, when she was in Italy (1998), 17 only, starting with short distances. She came Italy together with Jonah Koech, the first Kenyan I coached, now living in Iowa, and was a very Young and gracious girl.

When I put her in the first HM, everybody was skeptic about her possibility of success, since her way of running was not the best for long distances, and she was maybe 5-6 kg more heavy than today. She ran 1:12:32, and this showed mental and organical attitudes for long distances.

In 2004, we planned to run her first Marathon at the end of winter season. She went Stockholm at the beginning of June, and won with 2:35:14 with very little training.

Starting the real preparation for Marathon at the end of July, after her first experience, she won Milan in 2:28:11, becoming, also mentally, Marathon runner full time.

We worked together till the end of 2006. She went, through different experiences, till the victory in Boston in 2006 with 2:23:38, when showed her unbelievable mental resistance running the last 12.2 km with the best fourth time, men included (nobody of the first 10 men ran faster than her after 30 km).

She was used to stay in Italy in my house, and the person I know is a nice girl, with good moral principles and big respect for other people (never she spoke in bad way of somebody else), principles given by her parents in her small village near Moi Bridge.

After winning Boston (she prepared in Iten in a camp I created using my personal money, without the intervention of any managements, for helping new athletes and putting together athletes already with me in training before, but living in different villages), her husband decided they were ready for training at home in Mosoriot, and we started to have problems to understand exactly the training situation. For that reason, Rita (with me till 2008, but only more following programs) was no more able to improve (something happening with many kenyan women, when their husband decide to be their coach, with the presumption to know what they don't know).

She had a baby in 2009, but was able to come back in 2011 running in 2:25 at the end of the season in Frankfurt.

After that time, she had several personal problems, and found the solution of many of them thank to Claudio Berardelli and Federico Rosa.

I know Claudio very well, and absolutely don't think possible he is involved in any illegal action in training.

However, also if my position that doping at top level, with the best African runners, doesn't give any advantage, compared with the best possible training, doesn't change, I have to admit that the situation in Kenya during the last 5-6 years changed.

Really, I don't think foreigner coaches or managers are involved. A management has several athletes, and has only to lose when one represented athlete is positive for some drug.

But the fact now in Kenya there are many more road races with good prizes without any antidoping control provoked the proliferation of strange personages not coming from the athletic world (maybe doctors, or pharmacists, or simply cheaters looking at runners because around them there is a real racket of criminals of coasting trade), and these personages can have easy road for cheating athletes without good level of education, for that reason having naive mind and believing in everything some person with more education (the case of doctors or pharmacists) explain them.

This is not a problem of antidoping out or in competition, and is not a technical problem. This is a problem of specific culture and education, regarding the full Kenyan life, not athletics only.

Who has to face this problem is not AK. It's Kenyan Government, making soon a law against people selling not allowed pharmacs and cheating athletes for having advantages.

In the normal kenyan life, these are the same people selling pharmacs already expired, selling not pure and Dangerous water in fake bottles with fake labels, selling every type of damageous support for the normal life of normal people, and cheating ingenuous persons for earning money in illegal way.

Western Countries need to understand that poor African people have an important "motor" for living, that is their "hope in a better future". They are psychologically very weak about this issue, believing in everything somebody can tell them, able to give more hope.

I'm not surprise if many kenyan runners, of medium and low level, and without education, can be positive for some doping, and of course I don't consider this as "rampant" in Kenya, where we have may be 5000 runners.

But the fact a top athlete as Rita can be in the list makes me think there is something that Kenya Govn. has to face immediately.

I'm sure NOBODY of these athletes NEVER asked for something illegal, for increasing their shape, or their ability to compete. I know too well the mentality of the best athletes, such as I know the mentality of some "weak" athlete, and Always, when I heard somebody asking for some help (not illegal...) "such as in Europe or US", the request came from weak athletes. NEVER I heard one of kenyan top athletes asking for some supplement, while this is one of the first requests from European and American athletes.

But the fact Rita is involved means that the action of criminals around runners is growing, and the effect becomes worse and worse.

In this bad picture, that creates bad image on all kenyan runners, I think the efforts of Kenyan Government against DOPERS must be one of the priorities, more than the efforts of AK against DOPED.

One further consideration : the Majors gave a budget for allowing out of competition tests in Kenya and Ethiopia, and all the best athletes are now tested, thank to the money big Marathons used for this problem. So, people can finish to think that kenyan and ethiopian athletes are protected : if Rita, winner of the last 4 Majors and of the Jackpot, and at the moment best image for Women in the Marathon World, is busted for doping, ALL the bests (from Kimetto to Wilson Kipsang, from Geoffrey Mutai to Emmanuel Mutai, from Edna Kiplagat to Mary Keitany, from Kenenisa Bekele to Tsegaye Kebede, from Tiki Gelana to Tirunesh Dibaba, etc...) are in this plan and are controlled with continuity. This means that people can finish to think that controls don't work, when it's possible to catch the number ones in the World in almost all the disciplines in athletics, from sprint to throws to jumps (and, of course, to middle and long distances).

Renato

what do you think about your new colleague in china , Jos Hermens

when he was caught red-handed sending athletes to spanish doping doctors

he claimed that the doctors were merely providing homeopathy services for the athletes

i mean really!

this is the same man who has a close relationship with bekele and geb

The fact is Renato has no idea what is going on. I have said before maybe he isn't involved but wants to put performances down to him or his coaching. Time to wake up because this nightmare is only starting.

Ethiopia is even more dirty than Kenya - but they will face this sooner rather than later. New methods of testing are in place that nobody dares to think about - there are a lot of worries faces in New York right now.

Renato Canova wrote:

I know is a nice girl, with good moral principles and big respect for other people

Renato: who is nicer: Jeptoo or Michele Ferrari?

Hint: doping is cheating on OTHERS and the opposite of "big respect for other people"

I know Claudio very well, and absolutely don't think possible he is involved in any illegal action in training.

Of course not. All Italiens are naturally honest. That's why there is literally no crime existent in Italy.

Ok, one last question: if her Italien coaches didn't provide the EPO, where did she get it from? Maybe the pharmacy in Nairobi inside of the HILTON?

Oh wait, I forgot, that was a story made up by German "journalist", right?

The house of cards is collapsing.

NativeSon wrote:

I feel sorry for Mare Dibaba who lost to her in Chicago.

I wonder what the Ethiopians are thinking.

I would not feel sorry, you likely have a Lance-Armstrong situation here where he was doping and so were most of his closest rivals. The authorities of track and field allowed the sport to go professional in the 1980s and it has sadly become exponentially more corrupt from that point onwards.

I think your irony is out of place, in this case.

When I spoke of Michele Ferrari, I said he is a nice person for everybody can have the opportunbity to speak with him.

He is a man of very good culture, high level of scientific education, many cultural interests out of sport, and if you meet some person like him you can talk about several arguments for hours, without becoming bored.

This is, in this case, the explanation of what "nice" means for me. Maybe that in English you can use some other word...

But, when we look at his moral attitude, I completely deplore his behavior, and am very far from his ideas.

The case of Rita is different. I was coach of Rita for long time, in Italy and Kenya, and in Italy she was in my house, so I had the opportunity to appreciate her behavior, to understand her values and to know her thoughts and her psychology. For that reason I'm really surprised, and sincerely (also if are about 4 years I don't have contacts with her) I don't think a person can change so much.

That's the reason because I think she is a VICTIM of some ignorance, and of somebody ABUSING of her ignorance for personal advantage.

Looking at the jackpot, Rita was the only one with 3 victories (75 points), and for her was enough to finish Chicago in 5th position for having mathematically 500,000 USD. Which interest could she have in taking consciously some doping, with the risk to be caught (exactly what happened) ?

And the same calculation comes from her management. For her management, the amount of final jackpot (500,000 USD) plus the appearance (I don't know how much, but not less than 150,000 USD) without any good prize in the race, could produce more than 100,000 USD of percentage. Which reason they can have for risking image and money giving some illegal PED ?

These are all questions without some answer, till now.

What I really hope is that Rita can speak clearly about ALL THE SITUATION, finally involving the criminals (who are Kenyan, not European) that are allowed to destroy reputation and motivation of the best kenyan athletes, abusing of the ignorance of athletes and the superficiality of statal organization.

Speaking of Kimetto, I may be vindicated in that no one has yet broken 2:03 legally.