Drug cheat Alena Reta run 27:18 in Utah

Check this brief article, listed under the March news.

http://www.africathle.com/gb/perso/news/news02.html

This guys has showed up at a bunch of D.C. area races and gotten a decent amount of money.

For a 28 year old he looks like hell:

http://www.nvdaily.com/sports/web-sports/reta-deba-capture-top-spots-in-10k-race.html

ukathleticscoach wrote:

I'm always supporting the Ethiopians but this guy is dodgy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/18/whats-in-a-name-plenty-at-times/

Hey thanks for posting a travel advertisement in a newspaper.

That really proves a lot!

Alena Reta has never been reinstated by the Ethiopian Federation after he tested positive TWICE (2 samples form 2 races withing 4 weeks were positive) in 2001 to EPO while racing in Japan, thus he is simply not eligible to compete anywhere in the world, period! Personally, I know of 3 race directors whom have contacted Mr. Hersch at the IAAF (US Delegate) and the Ethiopian Federation themselves with the same answer from the IAAF and Ethiopian - HE IS NOT ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE AT ALL!!

It is perfectly in the rights of any road race in America to ask Mr. Reta for a letter form the Ethiopian Federeation stating that he has undersgone the reinstatement testing process with his country of citizenship's federation, which he simply has not, why, the Ethiopian Federation has simply said in the past that a positive EPO test ( Twice in Japan 2001 -Alena Reta) will never be tolerated nor will reinstated as a international competitor be possible (Ethiopia has a true zero tolerance policy). This is the Ethiopian Federations rule.

Reta tried to run in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil in 2007 and 2008 and was denied entry to so many races because of the lack of any salient proof that hs is eligible to compete international, ie, outside of Ethiopian. Further, as he is not eligible to complete by the Ethiopian Federation, he is not listed on the WADA or USADA watch lists of eligible to be drug tested, as he is not eligible to compete.

This man basically steals money from US Road Races and atheltes from around the work who are doing the right thing. Now he has found nice MORMAN people in Utah to steal money from again and again, whom probably think he is an honest athlete. Honestly, he belongs in Prison for what he is knowingly doing. He is still doping, one could conclude, as he is not subject to out of competition testing and race directors like David Monti and others will simply not allow him on the starting line. The Irony here is he lives very close to all the NYRRC races and is not allowed to run them!

This is just ridiculous and shame on any race director who lets him compete without a verifiable letter from the Ethiopian Federation allowing him to compete internationally (with phone number to contact the federation directly). This is like Ramzi racing a 1500m at Pre without going through out of competition testing and clearance for reinstatement by his federation. Who would allow that to happen? Road Race directors in America and that is what all the world knows including many Morroccans and Russians who dope and win prize money every single weekend without the threat of being tested out of competition while training and competing in the United States, the DRUG CHEATER ROAD RACER HAVEN OF THE WORLD!!!

b/man 5km?

What is your solution?

I don't think anyone really cares. I finished second to this guy once at a charity road race and won like $600 instead of $1k. This was a race put on by a family and I don't think they had any clue about who he was. That's probably the case in most instances. Either way I wasn't too bothered by it. Had I been a top level athlete running for more than beer money, and he beat me out of a medal, I would have been a lot more upset.

To "thanks for the info"/"infatuated with myself":

You're clearly committed to a cause here and supporting it cleverly, but why are you defending Alene Emere Reta? Do you really think that anyone on this thread dislikes him for being Ethiopian or black or fast? It's not just idle guesswork or bigoted aspersion-casting to notice that he's often deprived other Africans (Worku Beyi, Demesse and Wegayehu Tefera, Kassahun Kabiso, many more East Coast Ethiopians) of race winnings that are important to them in ways that few USA runners think about much; the African runners I know around here (NJ/NY) send almost all their earnings home and live in very inexpensive and uncomfortably crowded conditions to save every dollar they can. It seems fair that steroid/EPO users shouldn't get to compete with them for that money. Do you know more of the Reta story?

I only posted the truth, and do know know the runner. There is a lot of hysteria on this thread based on spurious claims, i.e. nothing. Even though I do not know him, I feel for him as a fellow human being.

I think many are speaking from hysteria or jealously, and hot logic or humanity.

Ah but if they win then they deprive him, so it's a fallacious argument.

I do the same, but I don't feel that any competitive runner has deprived me.

He has no outstanding conviction of anything, has served any ban and is eligible to compete. However, those convicting him in the press have not yet suffered any penalty. I know what I see here, and what I see here is wrong.

This thread is a classic example of PC gone wild. Those of us who work with, coach, or manage African athletes are the ones who are most angry at people like Alene Reta. The athletes who ARE taking something are stealing from others who are trying to compete the RIGHT way. Those of you who blindly protect someone who HAS tested positive, HAS tried to avoid his ban by changing his name, AND focuses on races that don't test (by the way he didn't get tested at Crazy 8's) are not doing any kind of service to African runners. You're not "protecting" them from a racist lynch mob. You're simply laying the politically "correct" foundation that prevents anyone from pointing out those that we know are taking drugs. Just because someone is African doesn't make them innocent anymore than it makes them guilty. They are humans. Some are good and some are bad. Stop defending people blindly just because you think others don't have the ability to see past their skin color. The sarcastic twat on the first page of this thread (I can't be bothered to go and check out his name) is a perfect case in point. He obviously didn't realize Reta had tested positive... but even once he was told he continued to defend him blindly (with some of the most ineffective sarcasm I have ever seen).

Politically Contentious wrote:

He obviously didn't realize Reta had tested positive... but even once he was told he continued to defend him blindly (with some of the most ineffective sarcasm I have ever seen).

Wow, sounds like LRC Obama voters who blindly defend, too.

Only I am the one who knows the "right way" to run and compete. After all I am the know who knows uh, some African athlete (no one else knows Africans except me). People who don't mope around like me cannot understand this.

Yeah it doesn't matter that he is not banned for anything, because I KNOW he is guilty! All you PC people who say well he's not guilty because he's not guilty are simply defending someone who's not guilty but you're not doing any kind of service to African runners. You're not protecting them! Because you're not allowing me to point out they are GUILTY even though they are not guilty of anything.

This is why I am angry!

The Africans are human, therefore they are guilty. Stop blindly defending them! They are guilty even though they are not guilty! Please think and try to understand this! Please don't be a sarcastic twat!

Yeah, I remember the first time I posted while drunk.

Sarcasm isn't working for you. You seem to struggle with reading comprehension as well.

The guy travels with a group of African runners and wears his club singlet. They don't seem very angry. You seem disturbed because you're not in on the action.

Thanks for the thorough and straightforward reply. I admire your desire to treat Reta and all others fairly, but when you call it "fallacious" to suggest that Reta takes money from others, you seem to assume that either Reta is clean or his competitors are not; otherwise, it seems impossible for them to "deprive" him of winnings except by running faster than he does. In this case, "the right way" doesn't seem a concept worthy of ridicule; can it mean anything else but "by the established rules"--specifically, "not using PEDS or competing while banned for having used PEDS"? According to this poster, "IAAF.org,"

__________________

Alena Reta has never been reinstated by the Ethiopian Federation after he tested positive TWICE [...] in 2001 for EPO while racing in Japan, thus he is simply not eligible to compete anywhere in the world, period! Personally, I know of 3 race directors whom have contacted Mr. Hersch at the IAAF (US Delegate) and the Ethiopian Federation themselves [and received] the same answer from the IAAF and Ethiopian Federation - HE IS NOT ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE AT ALL!!

__________________

This would make three times that he's been caught, counting the previous nandrolone case and ban. So, how do we answer the implicit question: "When, if ever, should someone lose rights that others are still granted?" And, attendant upon that, "When, if ever, should such rights be restored to a person who has been denied them?" If an athlete who uses PEDS even after being caught for them still loses no rights, what protects the clean athlete, since clearly some people will use the drugs even when the risk of a ban exists? If Reta should be allowed to race, who should not?

I'm genuinely interested in your answers, partly because your attitude toward Reta suggests that you have another system in mind.

"Travels with a group of African runners?" Not at ANY race I have ever seen him at.

I should have also asked - WHAT ACTION? I just dropped my best athlete because he had the moral integrity of your average LR.com poster. Some people aren't in the business just for the money - and don't tolerate fools like Alene Reta gladly.

Exactly. That's why it's called a race.

Running is an inalienable right, the same as our right to breath, drink water, eat food, grow our own food, travel where we wish to travel, to say and express ourselves as we wish. It is not subject to the whims of some federation.

When do you stop trying to take rights from individuals and trying to give absolute power to corrupt corporations.

It is a non issue for me. The greater issue is the attempted takeover of inalienable individual rights by corrupt, dangerous corporations and international federations.

In this sense, Alena Reta is a hero because he is standing up for himself. When he and those like him are gone, then the schemers will be coming for you.

Well thank you.

There are countless other examples.