Doha IS NOT a small meet.
Doha IS NOT a small meet.
douglas burke wrote:
Doha IS NOT a small meet.
No, but it is an Arabic city in Qatar, where they will pay big money to see fast times. And it is in a country not above buying athletes to compete for them!
His progression seems pretty normal to me... and what does the fact that his best times came in arab countries have to do with anything?
SEG wrote:
His progression seems pretty normal to me... and what does the fact that his best times came in arab countries have to do with anything?
I would not call his progression normal, not extra ordinary, but definitely not normal. The point the OP was making is that most doping is done durning out of competition periods and once competition starts a doper will lower their dosage or stop and as result they have great early season marks, but performances decline as the season progress.
Until about 2 years ago, Russian 400/800 females would put up incredible marks in early season (in-country) meets and at the Russian championships and not even make WC or Olympic finals.
He won the finals of the 1500 at the Asian Games in China last November. There were some excellent runners there. It wasn't a small meet, it wasn't in Doha or North Africa, and it wasn't early in the season.
I have no idea whether he's doping or not, but a two-second improvement over three years doesn't seem outrageous to me. And I wouldn't put much stock in an old PR at 800m. A lot of good 1500 runners have never recorded comparable 800 times.
A while back, on the letsrun homepage, the quoteof the day was about how silas kiplagat wanted to after the 1500m world record this year. So far his results have not indicated him getting anywhere near this goal...
Dissapointing that Isiah Koech didn't start, but oh well. Another time. What happened to kipchoge? He has had a long career so far, is it just time that he is starting to fizzle out? And micah kogo, i remember he was competitive at one point (i believe olympic 2008 bronze medalist in the 10 K). Has he too started the downward slump?
curious fanboy wrote:
Dissapointing that Isiah Koech didn't start, but oh well. Another time. What happened to kipchoge? He has had a long career so far, is it just time that he is starting to fizzle out? And micah kogo, i remember he was competitive at one point (i believe olympic 2008 bronze medalist in the 10 K). Has he too started the downward slump?
Kipchoge ran 12:55 indoors this year. I imagine he'll be around at the end of the season like he always is.
Full results on one page:
TrackCoach wrote:
I would not call his progression normal, not extra ordinary, but definitely not normal. The point the OP was making is that most doping is done durning out of competition periods and once competition starts a doper will lower their dosage or stop and as result they have great early season marks, but performances decline as the season progress.
Until about 2 years ago, Russian 400/800 females would put up incredible marks in early season (in-country) meets and at the Russian championships and not even make WC or Olympic finals.
I'm not quite sure what the difference between "not extra ordinary" and normal is. not extra ordinary = not beyond(extra) ordinary = ordinary = normal. Perhaps his progression isn't dead-on average, but it seems well within the range of normal.
As for the Russian comparison, I don't think its quite valid. 1st: it wasn't just one Russian following that pattern, but a whole bunch. I haven't see a bunch of saudi arabian runners following this pattern. 2nd: Russia = Russia, but Saudi Arabia != Qatar (or the Netherlands, where his new pb was run, for that matter). If an American posts a great time in Canada should we wonder if the Canadians are helping the American cheat?
The point about early season marks is definitely valid (though I don't think enough to base an accusation of doping on) My initial response was more to what I saw as anti-arab bias in AH's posts.