The Angel of Death wrote:
king guerrouj wrote:
El G ran 3:26 three times after 2000. Bekele ran 12:40 and 26:17 in 2005, and was still running 26:25 in 2008 when testing had supposedly seen significant improvement.
You mean 2008, the year CERA was first introduced????
I want to add -
- Bekele's 26:25 was run about 4 months after CERA had been approved for use in the US or Europe. A CERA test was not readily available until later that summer. When he ran that time, it was undetectable through an EPO urine test.
- 26:25 was the fastest he had run since 2005 ( when the EPO tests were actually getting teeth) by 21 seconds.
- It was the last time anyone ran faster than 26:43.
- "Bekele's 5k SB for 2008 was consistent with what he'd run during that time period, if not a tad slower. Wouldn't he have run a ridiculous 5k, too, if he had started taking CERA?" Remember, Bekele won the Olympic 5k (in a sub 13 and Olympic Record, mind you) by taking the lead at 2k and hammering the last 3k in 7:35 (3:59 last mile!), putting 5 SECONDS over Kipchoge over the final 300m!!
It is not joke to say Bekele "was on something" that year.