Jakob Igebrigtsen asked if Kenya should be banned from athletics. Here is his answer.

Good answer Jakob. Seriously. It's a very hard question for him to answer but he answered as well as he possibly could have.

Jakob is a testament to how poorly anti-doping works.

I don't think there needs to be collective punishment of nations except those that sponsor doping at a state level. However, positive drug tests should result in drug tests, not for cheating at sport, but for fraud.

He probably just wants Edinburgh to be banned

Believe him, he speaks from experience.

"Last year alone, 27 elite Kenyan runners were suspended for doping offenses — a total that amounted to 40 percent of the athletes suspended at the highest echelons of global track and field and distance running in 2022, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit, an independent antidoping agency that monitors international-level competitors."

maybe Coevett was right lol

Jakob is the cleanest 1500m runner on this planet. The man has never doped and never will. He rather not break Hicham El Guerrouj's 1500m WR than use drugs to do it. Take it from me, I know Jakob's type very well. I'm the only one on this earth, an RF King, with such confidence to say it like that, there is no other!

I think you made a mistake. Hicham El Guerrouj and Jakob Ingebrigsten are history's cleanest 1500m runners the world ever tolerated except the former was a far better and superior athlete on lousy shoes, tracks etc than the latter.

meant to say positive drug tests should result in prison sentences for fraud.

IF JAKOB COULDNT HANDLE GJERT HE COULD NEVER HANDLE A KENYAN FATHER LOL

<sarc>Wow! You proved that one.</sarc>

As always you either believe that testing works or it doesn't. If you believe testing works, which Jakob seemingly does, then you ramp up testing (done), up minimum testing requirements by country (done), and do more targeted testing (done). The only other moves from there are to up the suspension lengths, criminalize doping (hard to do), and/or try to take down doping rings (being done somewhat, but also very expensive).

The last deterrence moves are banning entire countries/training groups for a doping positive, or alternatively coaches, agents etc. These moves have the potential of penalizing other athletes or staff who have nothing to do with the offense. You can say "well fair is fair," but be careful what you wish for when a Shelby situation could result in all of Bowerman Track Club getting banned.

It is interesting that Jakob thinks that testing is "definitely not working," when he loses one race a year to a Scottish guy and otherwise trounces every single runner in every other race (unless he's sick or doing a 24-hour double). He must have a pretty high opinion of his talent and training if doping is such a problem and yet nobody can compete with him.

You state in your second sentence that Jakob "seemingly believes testing works", then at the end say that Jakob thinks that testing is "definitely not working".

He said that the fight against doping was definitely not working. He stated that testing catches a lot of people (but doesn't seem to deter new cheats). He was being asked specifically about Kenya, not about Scotland, or the USA, or Spain, or wherever. How many Kenyans "can't compete with him"? Tim, Kipsang, and the new Cheryuit, who is still only a teen? Tim definitely could compete with him until his teammate Manangoi was busted. So you think that because Jakob is faster than Kipsang and Reynold, that he must be doping? And that's because Jakob thinks there is still a lot of doping in Kenya despite the busts??

You have to get off the false dichotomy kick. Testing can work to various degrees. It is not an either-or. For instance, you catch Abraham Kiptum after his half marathon world best and if he tested positive in that race, then that time doesn't count. If you catch him in a later race, he gets to keep it. So, you can claim success for catching an athlete but the damage is already done in many cases, as Jakob said. Some will go years before getting caught. Others will never get caught but cheat their entire career. Testing does not stop everyone from cheating in the first place but it stops some and it catches others. Catching cheats stops them from competing but only gets them from that day forward. Ultimately, you have a situation in which 350 Kenyans have been banned, according to the Times, and we can recognize that this might not be a systemic federation level issue and not want to dole out collective punishment in a way that hurts the cheaters as well as the clean athletes, but if we do nothing more we will continue to have Kenya and Kenyans getting glory and money that they do not deserve. So, a collective penalty is warranted and it may even have an effect on just how rampant cheating is there.

To your other point, yes, Jakob has a very high opinion of his training and talent. He literally thinks that he is the best in the world.

He probably does. But maybe he is also thinking about other athletes, and the image and integrity of the sport in general

If an athlete is caught doping later in career their wins and records from all periods should be deleted as they have lost integrity, fair they can't pay back the money as it will be well spent but they should lose the title, record goes back to what it was before the athlete in question set it.

I believe strongly that the agents/agencies are the problem. Look at Rosa or Pineda. With a.n inordinate amount of positives with these two management groups as compared to others, is there a link?

You are correct. They profit from dopers who make good money, which the agents/coaches attain a percentage of that. Why do you think Renato denied doping was ever a problem? Exactly.