1999 1500m WC: A Case Against El G? Please give opinions

Steve Cram on his 3:46.30 WR:

"And when we got to the bell, I remember thinking, 'I am feeling so good here.' I just floated around the last lap." [It was done in 53.16!!]

"There are moments in anyone's sporting career where you almost can do no wrong. Running a world record should be one of the most difficult things you ever do in your life. It should be physically on the edge, demanding, and yet, that night for me in Oslo, it seemed like one of the most simplest and easiest things for me to do, physically, my career, I couldn't be any better."

someone had to do it wrote:He described the effect of the steroids with almost hushed reverence about how sudden and dramatic the impact was. He went off to steroids after the conference meet, never used them again and transferred.

very interesting. thanks for the link.

can you tell us how much steroids helped him? did it knock off 45 seconds from his time after only a few weeks?

Why was Lance so intensely pursued but no one has gone after ElG when it is as blatantly obvious that he used a similar systematic doping program? Is it because of money or did Lance just piss more people off? I would love to see someone investigate ElG now and take him down.

He was the smoovest runner in history and a hard worker. Just because you suck doesn't mean he cheated.

given that Morrocco has a very bad reputation of getting their top athletes busted, it would not surprise me if El G was actually a clean athlete.

y wrote:

Why was Lance so intensely pursued but no one has gone after ElG when it is as blatantly obvious that he used a similar systematic doping program? Is it because of money or did Lance just piss more people off? I would love to see someone investigate ElG now and take him down.

El G was protected by his federation. Read my post earlier in the thread about USATF covering up a positive in the '90s. This happened at the 1984 olympics as well. The governing body pre screened US athletes so they knew what they were dealing with and then subsequently covered up the positives at the LA games. The test results mysteriously disappeared.

The IOC had one last chance to bust El G this summer when they retested samples from the athens olympics before the statute of limitations ran out, but they instead chose to bust some no-name eastern europeans so that they could show the public that "our testing works!"

That was his last race and since the 8 year statute of limitations ran out, his drug aided records and medals are safe.

Well that just sucks. I just can't believe, and it's extremely unfortunate, that no one would investigate him. And it is terrible that we don't know either way.

the athens retesting seems fishy

after going to all the trouble of storing over 3500 samples for 8yrs they had to be pressured into rechecking some at the last moment

the ioc president claimed that testing was 'very sophisticated' at the time and he expected few positives?? wtf

apparently they didn't even retest justin gatlin

don't think the ioc will release names of those tested

kanny wrote:

fixed

The Dingo wrote:

Here's a video of Rudisha's 800m 2012 Olympic win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKEOjWEzVGs

Rudisha runs 1:40.91 which no one in history has ever run faster than. Obviously the race was not 'rabbited'... they show a slow-mo shot of him running down the final straight and there is absolutely NO strain on his face whatsoever.

At least Amos looks like he's hurting and his form is starting to go slightly. Rudisha literally looks as though he's on a normal training run. He had just run the fastest time ever and he's not even close to maxed out.

I generally try to give athletes the benefit of the doubt when it comes to doping or PED or whatever but that seems like the only logical explanation for this right?

The difference between Rudisha and Amos is that Rudisha has run 1:41 numerous times, so it's not like his body is being subjected to anything new. Amos on the other hand PRed by over a second, so yeah, he was hurting.

And Rudisha's form did falter in the last 200m. His leg stride was shorter, his turnover was slower, and he wasn't kicking his feet up as high as he was before, and his upper body was strained. He still looked pretty good considering it, but the point is, you are wrong.

y wrote:

Well that just sucks. I just can't believe, and it's extremely unfortunate, that no one would investigate him. And it is terrible that we don't know either way.

We do know either way. He has passed all of his tests as far as we know. So as far as we know, he is clean.

jhfhjf wrote:

We do know either way. He has passed all of his tests as far as we know. So as far as we know, he is clean.

Agreed.

As far as we know, Lance & Marion are clean as well.

ttff wrote:

codger wrote:

[quote]MdeN wrote:

El G. never had a bad race.......not one.

Here we have a guy who obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. El G had several bad races. (Assuming bad means didn't win).

NO! Bad means 8th or 10th.......not 2nd. And 1996 Atlanta was an unfortuneate race. And 2000 Sydney wasn't a BAD race.

codger wrote:

ttff wrote:

Here we have a guy who obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. El G had several bad races. (Assuming bad means didn't win).

NO! Bad means 8th or 10th.......not 2nd. And 1996 Atlanta was an unfortuneate race. And 2000 Sydney wasn't a BAD race.

My statement still stands. Read the rest of the thread.

y wrote:

Well that just sucks. I just can't believe, and it's extremely unfortunate, that no one would investigate him. And it is terrible that we don't know either way.

It's easy to say things like this. Tell us, please, what exactly they would investigate?

Actually it's quite easy, ask his teammates like ramzi. It is a similar situation as with Lance and would most likely have similar results.

Another question for you. Why hasn't ElG himself just come forward and asked for his samples from the olmpics publically retested?

Wouldn't this help establish his innocence. He most know that his performances have been questioned.

Because outside of this message board, no one has questioned his innocence. Or cares to waste time & resources investigating whether he doped 10+ years ago.

y wrote:

Actually it's quite easy, ask his teammates like ramzi. It is a similar situation as with Lance and would most likely have similar results.

Another question for you. Why hasn't ElG himself just come forward and asked for his samples from the olmpics publically retested?

Wouldn't this help establish his innocence. He most know that his performances have been questioned.

y wrote:

Actually it's quite easy, ask his teammates like ramzi. It is a similar situation as with Lance and would most likely have similar results.

Another question for you. Why hasn't ElG himself just come forward and asked for his samples from the olmpics publically retested?

Wouldn't this help establish his innocence. He most know that his performances have been questioned.

Are you serious? While we're at it, how about you yourself come forward and ask for a criminal hearing to figure out if you murdered someone last week. This would establish your innocence. It's impossible to know otherwise.

ttff wrote:

Are you serious? While we're at it, how about you yourself come forward and ask for a criminal hearing to figure out if you murdered someone last week. This would establish your innocence. It's impossible to know otherwise.

1) Use absurd exaggeration to diminish someone else's argument

2) ???

3) Profit!