Jos Hermens and Doping Investigation: German Speakers We Need Your Help

Here is the 2nd article translated (right click in internet explorer)

The Dopingskandal in Spain has branchings, which lead among other things to Germany and into the Leichtathletikszene. As was reported from Ermittlerkreisen in Madrid, a part on Tuesday in the context of a spectacular anti-doping thing raid of the guaranteed medicines of German origin is.

From where exact, was not to be fathomed. Medicaments, which are manufactured for the use in hospitals, are however obvious. A speaker of the Spanish police did not want to commentate this on Friday with reference to the determination secret.

With the raid against the Dopingring around the sport physician Eufemiano Fuentes and the Hämatologen José Luis Merino Batres had been guaranteed beside 200 units of stored blood and equipments for the treatment by plasma also thousands of Dopingmitteleinheiten and medicines, among them Epo and growth hormone from Chinese production. Operación Puerto (operation mountain passport), as the action was called, was the heaviest impact against the organized Doping in the history of Spain.

Beside Fuentes and Merino Batres had been arrested three further persons, under it one of the most famous and most successful Spanish cycle racing coaches, Manolo Saiz. It was already released on Wednesday under editions, because it is considered to the investigators as a customer of the Doping ring, not as a gang member. The name Merino Batres emerged also in the course of the processing of the Dopingfalls of the German Hochspringerin Amewuh Mensah: She had consulted the physician Miguel fishing rod Peraíta in Madrid on recommending its manager Jos Hermens. Peraíta again sent Mensah into the analysis laboratory of Merino Batres. Peraíta is considered also as the ominöse Top Doc, with which the Leichtahtletik coach Thomas Springstein over Doping talked shop.



“For the EM there might be some refusals”
The acceptance that the scandal affects also the Leichtathletik scene, creates however on another, more current realization. The investigators found units of stored blood, which should be used in accordance with their label to 8. and 13 August with the European championship into Göteborg. For mentioned days the 10000-Meter-Finale and the marathon race are scheduled. The investigators assumed at least twelve Leichtathleten were involved into the practices. „For the EM there might be some refusals “, said a Leichtathletik functionary to El País.

Demonstrated on Friday the four accused of the detention judge. After the Verhören for Fuentes detention was arranged, which can be suspended for bail. Merino Batres as well as the two other arresting, cycle racing coach Ignacio Labarta and ex professional Alberto León, came under editions on free foot. They must announce themselves weekly. According to medium data Fuentes as well as Merino have Batres in police Verhören abgestritten to be involved in Dopingpraktiken. Fuentes said, with the units of stored blood acts it over partly contaminated waste products for private research purposes. In addition the majority of the medicines purged. According to El País he, when photos were reproached to him, was silent on which „famous sportsmen “when entering his business premises in the center of Madrid to be seen is. Likewise to heard telephone calls.



On some bags pointed names and bar codes stand
Interesting might its discussions with the former Mountain Bike professional León be. It is to have served the Doping ring of the Fuentes famous-notorious in the scene as a courier. According to El Periódico is Fuentes one „air lift “between Madrid and the hotels „of the giro D `Italia “- driver to have furnished, the León served. Thus giro participants could have been supplied self-blood treated from Madrid with. The speculations around the names of complicated sportsmen stops meanwhile.

Police director Joan Mesquida expressed the certainty that „further prominent names will emerge “. It do not proceed however from further arrests. Of Spain highest sport authority CSD shrinks from obviously for legal reasons back to call name. A comprehensive list with patients was guaranteed by Fuentes. It can become however difficult to prove that the sportsmen doped themselves. Also is not safe in all cases, whom the units of stored blood are to be assigned. Partially clear names of sportsmen are noted. On some bags pointed names and bar codes would stand.

i can do a real translation after the poland-ecuador game if one is still needed... this looks pretty good though for a machine

from what i gathered from the article, an athlete - amewuh mensah (a german high jumper who tested positive for oxandralone in 2001) - got hooked up with Dr. Miguel "fishing rod" Peraita, on adivce from Jos Hermans (who I believe was Mensah's agent at the time.)

Peraita in turn hooked Mensah up with Dr. Jose Luis Merino Batres - who is one of the leading figures in the cycling doping scandal.

Tenuous connections at best.

ok, i took a look - is the entire first article scanned below?

you do have to pay to register and view it on the website, like i said i could translate it if you want me to - let me know wejo

I scanned everything I got. It looks like a line or two might be cut off. How much does it cost to read it online? I couldn't figure it out.

Hermens is involved for sure. He is on the list and there is also a list of athletes. The lab has also had surveylance for 6 months on video and has footage of people going in and out. Hermens has also been off the scene for a while probably trying to squirm his way out of the scandal. Waiting for this to explode

im almost done translating the second one..


to subscribe for a month of that e-paper, its 19.90 euro.

they also seem to have a trial-subscription for 9,90 that can be found here. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/vertrieb/abo/epaper/schnupper/.

this is going to be big....lots of big names that may go down here. heard rumblings about this for about a week now---not sure it will ever make big headlines here, but in Europe, this is going to be a HUGE thing if some of the bigger names show up.

Ouch.

here we go: ARticle 2:

The Doping-Affair is expanding

Made in Germany

The investigators into the Spanish doping scandal found traces to Track & Field and Germany
Von Javier Caceres

The doping scandal in Spanish has ramifications, that also lead to Germany and the Track & Field scene. As it was made public by the investigators in Madrid, a part of the medications, that were secured on Tuesday in a spectacular antidoping-action, was of German origin.

Where from exactly, could not be determined. However, it was clearly medications that were produced for use in hospitals. A speaker for the Spanish police did not want to comment on this during a conference.

At the action against the doping-ring around the Sports-doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and the haematologist Jose Luis Merino Batres, 200 blood-packages and plasma treatment equipment was secured, along with thousands of doping-utilities and medicaments such as EPO and Human Growth Hormone, of Chinese production. Operation Puerto (Mountainpass), as it was called, was the heaviest blow against organized doping in the history of Spain.

Besides Fuentes and Merino Batres, three more people were arrested, amongst them one of the most famous and succesful Spanish Biking coaches, Manolo Saiz. He was released conditionally on Wednesday, because he was considered a customer of the doping-ring, and not as a direct participant. The name Merino Batres also appeared in connection with the doping case involving the German high-jumper Amewuh Mensah: at the advice of her Manager, Jos Hermens, she consulted the doctor Miguel Angel Peraita in Madrid. Peraita, in turn, sent Mensah to the analysis laboratory of Merino Batres. Peraita is also considered as the ominous Top Doc, with whom the Track&Field coach Thomas Springstein discussed doping extensively.

"There might be some cancellations for the European Championship"

However, the assumption that the scandal touched the track&field scene is grounded on a more recent development. The investigators found blood-packages that were intended to be used on August 8th and 13th, according to the inscription, which is the time of the European Chmapionship in Goeteborg. The investigators assumed that at least 12 track&field athletes were involved with the clinic. "There might be some cancellations for the European Championship," said a track&field functionaire to El Pais.

On Friday the four accused people were presented to the Judge. After the hearing, Fuentes was given jail-time that could be reduced to a caution. Merino Batres, along with the others, were conditionally set free. They have to report weekly. According to the Media, Fuentes and Batres denied being involved in athletic doping at the hearing. Fuentes was reported to have said that the blood-packages were partially polluted waste products for private research. According to El Pais, he kept silent when he was shown photos of athletes entering his rooms in Madrid, and when he was presented with wiretapped phone-data.

Some bags were labelled with nicknames and barcodes

Especially interesting might be his conversations with the earlier mountain-bike pro Leon. He was supposedly the courier of the Fuentes doping-ring. According to El Periodico, Fuentes instated an "airbridge" between Madrid and the hotels of a "Giro d'Italia" rider, which Leon operated. This way the Giro-participants could be supplied with their treated blood from Madrid. The speculations over the names of the athletes remain.

Police director Joan Mesquita mentioned that further famous names will most likely come up soon. He did not refer to further arrests though. Spain's top sport body, CSD, seems to be afraid of mentioning names because of judicial connotations. Apparently an extensive list of names was obtained from Fuentes. However, it could be hard to prove that the athletes actually doped. Also, it is not always clear, for who the blood-packages are. Partially, they are labelled with names of athletes, but on others, there were bar-codes and nicknames.

wejo, you must be peeing your pants with delight. You found an article about a doping scandal that BARELY mentions Hermens, you have no idea even what it says because it is in German, and yet you are blasting it over your site and hoping and praying it will cause many to cast suspicion at Bekele and Geb. Too funny. You don't have a single friend in the running or "journalism" world that speaks German?? You didn't want to confirm what that article was saying before blasting this "news" all over your site?

hey wejo, how about this:
all Africans are dirty, and most top Euros are too. You were one of the few clean athletes out there (along with a few other white American friends of yours). Your 28 minute and change 10k, in a clean world, would have actually landed you in the Olympic final, fighting for a medal.
Are you happy now?? I truly think that part of you believes the above, and that is why you are such a "drug crusader". I think it has nothing to with cleaning up the sport, and more to do with feeling better about your own times and how they stack up with the top runners in the world. your brother has been claiming all the top africans are juiced for years, with little proof. But keep trying guys, your bound to make something stick, and then you can use that to smear ALL the African athletes. Isn't that what you REALLY want? (and I do think that is true. Because if 100% accurate testing came along, lets' say a fool-proof lie detector, and this was applied to all runners of the last 20 years, and it revealed that a couple top Africans cheated, but 99% were cleaned, I don't think you'd be happy at all that the real cheaters were outed. No, I think you would very, very, disappointed, and would in fact contest the results, no matter what evidence was offered to the contrary. Are you really out for truth? Or are you just out to smear people you personally don't trust and prove theories you've had for years, whether the evidence is there or not? I think the latter. )

TRUST me....this is bigger than just a casual mention of Hermens. It will be interesting to see where all the pieces fall...

See, I was right. Look at this DAMNING evidence of Hermens and EPO use!

---

kiril wrote:
".... The name Merino Batres also appeared in connection with the doping case involving the German high-jumper Amewuh Mensah: at the advice of her Manager, Jos Hermens, she consulted the doctor Miguel Angel Peraita in Madrid. Peraita, in turn, sent Mensah to the analysis laboratory of Merino Batres. "

---

from medblogs web--interesting, eh??? not making any conclusions myself, just an interesting read.

CSI: Medblogs.....Sports Agent Changes the Official Story of Alem Techale's Death
Spinning Alem Techale's Death

I've been waiting for someone involved in the death of Alem Techale to catch on that THE BLOGOSPHERE IS WRITING about the implausible story of Alem's demise...

If you are unfamiliar with this story, see my posts here and here and here.

I've been waiting for the guilty shuffling of feet, the stuttering retreats, and garbled contradictions that begin, inevitably, before the illogical medical backtracking begins.

There is a faint shuffle coming from Nijmegen, Holland. Can you hear it?

Nijmegen is the home of Global Sports Communication -- a sports agency --owned by Jos Hermens. GSC represents Kenenisa Bekele and until two weeks ago represented Bekele's fiance, Alem Techale.

Bekele, by the way, is already a huge long-distance running superstar and many people think he has the stuff to become the greatest of all time. Bekele tells people he believes he will run faster in the future (is he prescient?)...

Gebrselassie, with two Olympic gold medals, four world championship wins and 17 world records, is widely considered the greatest distance runner ever, but the murmurings in the athletics community suggest Bekele may become even greater.

Bekele adds fuel to such talk when he says he can still take another two seconds off his 10,000m record.

This may come into play later...but for now, back to the spin...

Version #1: Death in The Chevy

Here is the first iteration of the story of Techale's death:

Tuesday, 1/4/05:

Alem Techale goes on a "routine training run," with Bekele, in "a forest in a hilly area on the outskirts of Addis Ababa."

Techale collapsed.

Bekele carried Techale to his car, but she died before they could get to a hospital.

Wednesday, 1/5/05:

Techale is buried without an autopsy.

It doesn't take anyone too long, after looking at this story, to ask why Alem Techale was buried the next day without a medical examination and autopsy. The first flimsy excuse was that this is not the way things are in Ethiopia -- autopsies are not well-accepted.

But Alem is attached to one of the biggest stars in track and field. And HIS agent was HER agent: Jos Hermens. Wasn't Jos sophisticated enough or smart enough to call up on the phone and say "Whoa--let's find out what the hell happened -- IT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT?

Maybe not.

The Agent Speaks

But Jos is talking, now, from Nijmegen:

" It is difficult to say if it was heart failure or somethingto do with the brain. The Ethiopian doctors who performed the autopsy could find nothing."


HOLD EVERYTHING!


Did he say AUTOPSY? But she didn't have an autopsy...right? I mean she was buried the next day and every source I have -- besides this quote -- says that she did NOT have an autopsy.

But why would Jos say this?

By the way, Jos Hermens FLEW to Ethiopia for the funeral. He was THERE when Alem Techale was buried, so I don't think he's confused. I don't think he's suffereing from jet lag either. So why did he say that?

And he didn't just SAY THAT as an isolated statement (that we or some reporter might be misconstruing)...no...he also tied it in with two diagnoses: heart failure and "something" to do with the brain.

I have news for you. This is no accidental slip of the tongue. And it does not make sense as the truth.

If the doctors HAD dome an autopsy we certainly would know that there was nothing wrong with the brain (Hermens is trying to implicate a ruptured aneurysm) and we would also know if the heart were structurally normal, thus eliminhating several of the most common reasons for sudden death in athletes.

Jos isn't done, yet. He's also about to revise Bekele's story more as in:

At first we thought Alem had died on the way to hospital, but she actually died in the woods while Kenenisa was running to get his car. She passed away before he could get back to her. He took her to hospital but there was nothing he could do. To have your fiancée die in that way is a terrible thing.

Oh, I see. And does this make a difference? I mean the first story was that he picked her up and put her in his car and she died before they got to the hospital. Now Jos wants us to know that he left her -- collapsed in the dirt -- in the hilly forest and then ran to GET his car?

She "passed away" before he could get back to her.

I see.

Ethiopian Autos?

Can I ask the marathoning community something?

Where exactly do you keep your cars while you are marathoning?

Especially in the hilly outskirts of Addis Ababa? I mean are they always close by? Do they FOLLOW you? Are they CLOSE ENOUGH so that you can run and retrieve them in case someone is DYING?

And what kind of car does Mr. Bekele keep so close to his marathon course in the hilly forests of Ethiopia? A Bradley?

This is spin, CBB readers.

I don't know why Mr. Hermens is spinning junk, but I could make a lot of guesses...can't you?


STAY TUNED.............

Posted by Doctor CBB on January 17, 2005 at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)
CSI: MEDBLOGS...THE WORLD LOOKS THE OTHER WAY AS ALEM TECHALE IS BURIED AND FORGOTTEN
Call the Police?

Let's do some role playing. Pretend you are in Anywhere, U.S.A. The following circumstances need your attention:

A twenty two year old man and his 18 year-old fiance go out for a walk / run / car ride / boating jaunt.

Where they go, there are no other people.

When they return, the 18 year old girl is dead, in the front seat of the young man's car. His story is that the young woman just dropped to the ground and died. There are no witnesses. There is no history of disease or illness in the woman.

Multiple Choice?

You are (pick one):

1. The police chief

2. The medical examiner

3. The girls parents

4. The boyfriend

5. Someone who gave the girl a drug that might have killed her

Given each of the above roles, choose what you would most want to see happen next:

1. Police investigation and autopsy to determine the cause of death

2. A quick funeral and burial with NO further investigation, NO autopsy, and NO questions asked.



Scott Peterson Wishes He lived in Ethiopia


Welcome to the case of Alem Techale.

We are ignoring the circumstances of this young woman's death. Why? Because she was running when she died and everyone simply accepts the idea that she must have suffered sudden cardiac death -- even though the likelihood of this event in an eighteen year old female marathoner is vanishingly small.


And MOST importantly, sudden cardiac death is a diagnosis of exclusion.


That means that when everything else has been eliminated as a possible cause AND the autopsy shows no heart abnormality AND we have no further clues -- then and only then can we label the death a sudden cardiac death.


The case of Alem Techale fulfills NONE of these criteria.


It is much more likely that Alem Techale was struck by lightning. Or murdered. Or died because she was taking or using drugs or medication.

And if she DID die from sudden cardiac death then it is important to know if she had any cardiac malformations that her family needs to be aware of --because if it's a genetic condition they might die also!

Alem Techale needs to be exhumed, her final weeks of life need to be retraced, and everyone associated with her medical care and training need to be questioned thoroughly.

What's the matter with everyone? Why isn't the running community HOWLING about this?



Posted by Doctor CBB on January 17, 2005 at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)
CSI MEDBLOGS: YOUNG FEMALE MARATHONERS DON'T DROP DEAD...THE MYSTERY OF ALEM TECHALE'S DEATH


Part II of CSI MEDBLOGS:

DEAD RUN...HOW DID MARATHONER ALEM TECHALE DIE?


Part One is HERE.


All Ye Know On Earth and All Ye Need to Know



The world press is telling us that the elite 18 year-old female Ethiopian marathoner Alem Techale collapsed and died while training with her fiancee Kenenisa Bekele.

What the world press is not telling us -- or maybe what they do not themselves know -- is that 18 year old female marathoners don't drop dead while running. Not ever. So why now? So why Techale?

The Odds? They Don't Exist

For every 1,000,000 female college-age athletes, only one will die suddenly while exercising, every year. One in a million.

To put this into perspective, there are thirteen WNBA teams with approximately ten women on each team. These thirteen teams would have to play for about seven thousand seven hundred years (or until the year 9705) before we might expect to see one player die from sudden cardiac death during exercise.


But the odds are even longer if we consider Alem Teleche's particular niche in the sports world: Female marathon runner, age 18. In the largest, most comprehensive study ever done on sudden death in marathoners*, 18 years of modern marathons were reviewed, and there were four exercise-related sudden deaths. Three of these deaths were MEN and three of the deaths were due to coronary artery disease (= "hardening" of the arteries) which is not relevant in an 18 year female.

Although by such precedent, the odds of Alem Teleche dying from sudden cardiac death while running are ZERO, if forced to calculate the odds from the above data, her risk during any given marathon would be about 1/150,000, which means, if she ran a marathon every day (and never aged), it would be over 4 centuries before you would expect such a rare event to occur.

In my line of work, and in a policeman's line of work, a bizarre, nearly impossible explanation for unexpected death can mean only one thing: There's more to the story.


A Broken Heart?

I know what many of you are asking: was Alem predisposed to sudden cardiac death by a congenital ( = present since birth) cardiac abnormality? The literature indicates that over 50% of exercise-related sudden deaths in athletes are associaterd with such abnormalities (mainly hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and coronary artery variants). And yes, we could then talk endlessly about the value of screening these athletes and testing them... but the presence or not of congenital abnormalities in Alem Techale is irrelevant.

Because?

18 year old female marathoners don't die from any cause. Not that we know of. Not in all the world literature. So how did Alem Techale die? And why did NO ONE demand an autopsy? And why did they bury her IMMEDIATELY? And why isn't anyone anywhere asking...


HOW DID THIS GIRL DIE?




Stay Tuned






*Another study of the entire world literature (that's all the marathons anyone has ever reported on) there were 36 cases of heart attack or sudden death in marathoners, but the mean age affected was 43.8 and 75% of these runners had "hardening" of the arteries --again, a disease Alem Teleche could not have.


Posted by Doctor CBB on January 14, 2005 at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (4)
CSI MEDBLOGS: DEAD RUN: HOW DID MARATHONER ALEM TECHALE DIE?
Because I do not Hope to Turn Again





18 year old Alem Techale was destined for marathon stardom. An elite Ethiopian long distance runner, the young woman had already won the world youth title in the 1500m. Training with the top group of Ethiopian marathoners, Alem was preparing for what everyone believed would be a spectacular career. Last week she went for a training run with her fiancee, 22 year old Kenenisa Bekele, the Olympic gold medal and world record holder in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

During that run through the hilly forests outside Addis Ababa, Alem Techale collapsed. According to syndicated reports, Bekele rushed to Techale and scooped her up in a desperate attempt to get her help. It is said that she died in his car.

Within days Alem Techale had been eulogized and buried -- without an autopsy. Some media sources say Alem had a "heart attack." Most simply expressed the grief and sorrow all are stricken with over the loss of such a young, promising life.

Guesswork Not Allowed: How Do Young Athletes Die?

An 18 year old super athlete dies suddenly and unexpectedly, then has a quick funeral and burial. No autopsy is performed ... and the press is asking no questions. Shouldn't we investigare this ? Shouldn't we explain this staggerring loss? Doesn't everyone want to know, as best as possible, what happened, so that perhaps we can prevent it next time?

Is there more to this case, though, than just rounding up the usual suspects? Cardiac dysryhthmia...heart attack...is it just that or is there more?

There may be more. I can tell you this much: There is something wrong with this picture.

In the coming days

CSI MEDBLOGS

explores the death of Alem Techale

&

HERE'S WHAT I AM THINKING:


It is extremely unlikely that an 18 year old super athlete would just fall over dead -- Why did Alem collapse? How did she die?

Alem was treated by a well-known German physician who is famous for using alternative therapies -- Is this important to the diagnosis? Was she on medications or using any treatments?

Sudden death in young athletes was almost epidemic in the cycling community not long ago. It is strongly believed that this phenomenon is due to the use of EPO (erythropoeitin) -- the high-tech equivalent of blood doping -- Could Alem have been using EPO?

East Africans have totally dominated long distance running for years in a way that seems statistically impossible -- Are they genetically suited to be marathoners or is there another explanation?

Are Ethiopian and Kenyan marathoners folksy distance runners, honing their skills in the mountains of Africa -- Or are they actually just another subgroup of "globetrotting superstars" replete with PR and sports agents -- and all the dangers that come with that lifestyle

ok - here's the second article translated:

The Other Problem

The reformed Golden League is starting - meanwhile track & field has to deal with the consequences of the Spanish Doping Scandal.

Caption under picture: Everything normal: Jos Hermens is watching out for the wellbeing of the Olympic-Champion Kenenisa Bekele. At the same time, very different problems are developing for him.

Munich - There is always a goal for the world champion, even if that goal is only money. This summer, Kenenisa Bekele can't reach for the very big glory for Ethiopia, because in 2006 there is are world championships or Olympic games. The African Championship in August, in Mauritia, do not develop the same shining power of the World Championship, and so, Bekele set himself a different goal for this business year. He wants to take a shot at the Golden League Jackpot over 5000 or 3000 meters, at the 6 stages of the most expensive track & field tour, that begins today in Oslo. IAAF changed the rules so a victory in 5 of the 6 stages brings a share of the first 500,000 pot - the victors in 6 of 6 stages get to split the other 500,000, and this could make this season very profitable for the dominant distance runner of the past few years. For the money, Bekele is even willing to give up improving his world records this year. His coach Edgar de Veer says, "It's not very important to run very, very fast."

However, it could also be that the entire Golden League is not so important right now, when one considers what investigators found in Spain recently. The raids against the doping-ring of sports doctor Eufemio Fuentes and haematologist Jose Luis Merino Batres yielded a giant doping pharmacy, along with a list of names of athletes, who, supposedly, were illegaly treated by Fuentes. Cycling was already shaken heavily by the scandal, but it probably will not stay at that. Track & field athletes were also on the list. The dubios circle seems to have had a wide-reaching range of contacts, and especially Bekele's surroundings appear in the spotlight, namely Jos Hermens, de Veer's chef at the powerful Track & Field agency "Global Sports Communication."

The suspicion has not arrived at Bekele yet, and his wonder runs are attributed to the altitude of Ethiopia, along with natural talent and an expansion of it through hard work. But the fact that Hermens, one of the most powerful track & field managers with over 800 athletes and connections all around the world, is involved, shows that the affair could say a lot about the core sport of the olympics. Already at the process of coach Thomas Springstein, who was convicted for underage-doping, the name of ***cut off*** (i think it says Hermens, would make sense) was dropped, ***cut off some more*** had contacts to another Madrid-based doping doctor, Miguel Angel Peraita, with who Springstein discussed improving performance through doping over e-mail. Hermens was said to have suggested the high jumper Amewu Mensah to treat her injury with Peraita. Peraita, in turn, sent her to Batres' analysis laboratory, and gave her teh steroid oxendrolon (blurry), for which she later tested positive; at least this is what Mensah's attorney claims, while Peraita denies it vehemently.

The paths are intertwined, but logical enough, in order to not be dismissed casually. Until now, Hermens always succeeded in hiding behind the high moral of the distance kings such as Bekele's predecessor and guide, Haille Gebrselassie, and in explaining himself cleanly, when other mandators were caught up in doping allegations. Now the situation is serious, many functionaries are worried, and Hermens himself, who always seemed secure and public, is nowhere to be heard. He dissapeared right after the Indoor WC this year for an undetermined period to take care of his children. "I have the feeling that he worked too hard and too much", de Veer says. De Veer himself could not comment on the doping allegations, and claims he has not heard of the Mensah - Madrid connection. He promised that he would ask Hermens about the situation and report back to the paper. Until the publication-closing there was no call back. And so, only de Veers version and impression of the case remains in connection with Hermens. "We are not afraid", says de Veer, and he does not feel insecure about the Spanish scandal. He seems to have completel different worries: Bekele has to run in Oslo.

Amazing how Bekele is untouchable except for EL G, and suddenly this scandal breaks out and Bekele loses. Merely circumstantial, but the noose might be tightening on the dirty Hermens.

Wow. You're wrong. Haile Gebrselassie is my favorite runner of all time. I was interested in cleaning up this sport when I was a 30+ minute 10k guy. I've never had illusions that I'm one of the top runners in the world. I love running and have progressed to a level that I am proud of but am under no illusions that guys can't run a lot lot faster than me clean. At the same time, I'm not going to turn my head and pretend things are all rosy in this sport. People of all ethnicities cheat. Robert has never claimed "all the top Africans are juicing".

Read what I wrote, "that supposedly mentions manager Jos Hermens (one of the top agents in the sport, agent to Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebreslassie) in conjunction with the huge doping scandal going on in Spanish cycling."

That is a pretty mild statement.

We haven't written an article on it. I just posted what we had heard so someone could translate it. I had looked at it enough to think it was about cycling that the focus of the article was not on Hermens (although their is a picture of him at the top) I'm not going to stick my head in the sand and ignore an article in a major German newspaper that has a picture of Hermens and involved doping. It would be like someone who follows the sport of cycling ignoring the doping allegations against Michael Ferrari and not pointing out his ties to Lance Armstrong.

If there was a foolproof test, it would be a great great day for sport. Robert and I have been saying for ages there needs to be a major major push in the drug testing research area. The amount of money going towards research is a joke.

If there was a foolproof test, the cheats would immediately be expunged and the clean athletes would be able to compete knowing they were not at an unfair advantage. And we would not have to look at every accomplishment wondering what if. As Tim Layden wrote in the SI article on the homepage, "Another school says you get used to the idea that you just don't know who is clean and who isn't -- although your conscience tells you that an awful lot of athletes are not, by the letter of the rules, clean. Back to track and field for this one: I have covered track for three decades and long ago made peace with my conscience. It's not easy. I've praised many athletes in print for their work while wondering -- sometimes more than wonder -- if they are clean."

People's careers are affected by cheats. Can you imagine what Suzy Favor Hamilton's confidence would have been like if she blew away Regina Jacobs every year at nationals instead of losing to her?

---

a great day for wejo wrote:
hey wejo, how about this:
all Africans are dirty, and most top Euros are too. You were one of the few clean athletes out there (along with a few other white American friends of yours). Your 28 minute and change 10k, in a clean world, would have actually landed you in the Olympic final, fighting for a medal.
Are you happy now?? I truly think that part of you believes the above, and that is why you are such a "drug crusader".

---

"a great day for wejo" is actually the ultimate sniffer: Sir Lance-alot

if you think that jos is not dirty regarding encouraged drug use in his athletes, then you are either completely naive or have never been around international track and field. just go to the athletes hotel and sit in the bar after zurich, stockholm, or the dn galan this year. you will be an amazed and enlightened fly on the wall.