I'm highly suspicious of Narve Nordås

It's suspicious because he's on the PED. No doubt about it.

I'd equate him with Katir.

If he’s doping, and it seems likely that he is, what do you think that says about another notable Norwegian athlete? You know, the child and science experiment of Nordas’s new coach.

Too obvious 🙄

Agreed, people were suspicious of Katir since 2021 but give a pass on Nordas.

I see similar progressions in the same season from many other 1500m contenders (Mario García Romo, George Mills, Cam Myers, Andrew Coscoran, Niels Laros, etc)

Probably they are 3/4 seconds faster using the new shoes.

Also, it could be a new legal supplement (I read something about bicarbonate used by many TDF riders)

He didnt really go from 3:36 (in terms of capacity) in one year. He wasnt focused on the 1500 before. He was a 13:16 runner in the 5k already and could have run a lot faster than 3:36 for the 1500 if he had participated in a lot of fast 1500m races. For reference - Almgren’s personal best for the 10k roads was 31:20 before he ran 27:20 in Valencia this year. It is quite common in the nordics to have a personal best that doesn’t reflect your capacity if you primarily are focusing on other events.

Moreover, Narve started training at altitude. According to Marius Bakken, training at altitude has diminishing effects. After some years of that type of training, it doesn’t work as well. the body adapts and you dont get the same boost as you used to. And (I suspect) that Narve started taking Maurten products (just like Jakob/Almgren does) during training sessions and before races. Maurten’s bicarbonate alters your lactate levels and allows you to run faster/longer with higher lactate.

Also, it is norway (not spain/the ncaa in the us), so he is actually being tested. That being said, he is almost certainly still using asthma medication (but that is still allowed).

This is a biased position. It is highly unlikely that Nordas has been tested much (if at all) before last year in the summer. This from a 2022 article:

So, it’s entertaining, at the least, to look at the AIU numbers and see that, yes, 18% of the U.S. team had no test but 50% – 50%! – of Norway’s 20-person team arrived in Eugene having had no OOC test in the 10 months prior.
Of those 20, four finished top-eight. Three won medals: middle-distance standout Jakob Ingebrigtsen a gold (5000 meters) and a silver (1500), and hammer thrower Elvind Henriksen (bronze). The fourth, of course, is Karsten Warholm, the Tokyo 2020/1 men’s 400 hurdles champion and world-record holder; he finished seventh in the event in Eugene.
The average number of OOC tests for those four: 6.75. Clearly, the focus – rightly – was on Ingebrigtsen, Warholm and Henriksen (silver medalist at Tokyo 2020). The average for the rest of the team: 2.1.

3wiresports.com

One in five U.S. athletes not tested before Eugene, and other nuggets | 3 Wire Sports

Alan Abrahamson

BUDAPEST – Americans often take a holier-than-thou position when it comes to the anti-doping system. Indeed, U.S. athletes are typically heard to say something like, we get tested more. The upshot: you can trust our results m...

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There's always a way to justify what otherwise isn't credible.

Everyone at the upper end of things are doping. At least thyroid meds and asthma meds. Low dose steroids or at least testosterone. EPO. HGH. The least likely dopers (to me) are any of the top 3 in the USA marathon trials, or most Japanese marathon runners and a smattering through most countries. Merely an opinion. By the way, check out the asthma figures for the Norwegian cross country ski team.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361814928_Prevalence_of_Asthma_among_Norwegian_Elite_Athletes

13:16 5000m to 3:29 1500m is not much different than 3:36 1500m to 3:29 1500m. Stop pretending like there is a difference.

But ... innocent until caught.

it is suspicious as any kind of major improvement is in track and field. but if you look carefully at Narve's races from 2022, you can easily surmise that he might have run 3:33 or so had he been in the correct races at the right time.

he won both of his 1500s that year, including one win against elliott giles, who would go on to run 3:33 the next month, and 3:30 the next year.

his other win was against a guy named adrian ben, in 3:36. It was Ben's only 1500 of that year. The next year, Ben would go on to run a 3:33 and 3:34, as well as a 1:43 800.

the fact is, narve did not know he was a 1500 meter runner. it was something he did as support for his 3000s and 5000s, which he raced far more frequently.

Even still, 3:33 to a 3:29 bronze is a huge leap.

the other thing for Narve is that his 3000 has not really improved much, and 5000 improved 10 seconds. Those are reasonable numbers considering a change to full time training and altitude camps. I really just think he was a 1500 guy who didn't know it.

Nordas was a 5000/1000m runner dropping down to the 1500m.

Katir was always a 1500/5000 runner and went from fringe national class to all time great.

Nordas switched coaches, to the coach of the current Olympic 1500m champion.

Katir switched coaches, to a guy who was literally a Baker the year before, and had no connection to athletics. Hi improvement also came during lockdown.

Nordas is Norwegian, one of the least corrupt countries on Earth, with no doping record in athletics.

Katir is Moroccan, coming to Spain as an illegal immigrant. Morocco has a rampant culture of doping in athletics, with no concept that 'cheating is wrong', and Spain has had state sponsored doping since the 1980's, and was recently slammed by WADA over their lack of testing standards. Katir's manager also managed dopers like Cacho, and gave an interview in which he said convicted dopers should be given second, third, and fourth chances. Katir never denied that he doped (and still hasn't) and reacted to accusations by claiming to have slept with the accusers wives.

Of course Nordas and his improvement is remarkable, and hopefully he is being scrutinised closely and tested more often than most, but on a scale of 1 -10 likely doping I would say :

Jake Wightman 1

Nick Willis 1

Josh Kerr 2 (for being based in USA)

Jakob 2.5 (simply for being so good)

Nordas 3.5 (remarkable improvement)

Nuguse 4 (remarkable improvement)

Potato Tim 7.5 (Kenyan, training partner of Manangois)

Makhloufi 9.5

Katir 10 (before suspension)

He's about as clean as the Ingebrigtsens.

I guess white people just have the gene that makes them medal contenders from one season to the next.

Is that a doping scale or a skin tone scale?

There is no magic sauce. You people are doping endorsers, pretending to be anti doping.

Norway was also slammed by WADA for its failure to test underage athletes.

The head of biathlon has been arrepted for corruption and collusion with Russia

Norway has a lot of problems with doping in its most prevalent sports like biathlon and cross country skiing. The only reason it hasnt shown up in athletics yet is because there were so few of them before the recent surge

So your scale is only your opinion and is not supported by facts. Similarly you can choose to blindly accept Nordas explanations for such an improvement while disregarding the others explanations but do not pretend it is any kind of rational or objective analysis.