Sprint historians, how could the 2003 Paris World Champs be won in 10.07 and 20.30?

BALCO scandal was around that time

BALCO

Sometimes races are just slow and tactical. Like every US championship distance event. Remember when the men's 5k was almost run in 15:00 a year or two ago?

uusj wrote:

Sometimes races are just slow and tactical. Like every US championship distance event. Remember when the men's 5k was almost run in 15:00 a year or two ago?

ummmmmmm sprints are never tactical, that's just plain stupid.

Weather data says it was 60 degrees and cloudy at 9 pm when the race was run. It had rained for about 4 hr prior to the race.

That was for the 200m

if you get a chance to watch the 100 watch it. One of our wondeful American men ( I forgot if it was Drummond or Mitchell)was called for a false start but refused to leave the track, holding the race up for quite a while. Perhaps this fear of being dqed caused everyone to hesitate at the start in the finals.

Tim Montgomery was our culprit

Everyone was worried about false starting after the Jon Drummond incident?

Yeah, BALCO. I am amazed that you don't remember this. It was the FIRST thing that came to mind. Tim Montgomery's now void WR was set in 2002, and he was found guilty shortly thereafter.

Marion Jones had his child June 28, 2003 and she was found guilty around the same time.

Maybe both sprints were run into a headwind, I did not check, but my money would be on the ripple effect of so many sprinters being caught. Of course, by 2005 it was back to business as usual.

It is pretty interesting to look at Montgomery's wiki page and see how little he achieved and qualified for (at global meets) before setting a WR (at the height of his doping).

Also, really interesting to see Marion Jones' page, and see how many people were caught and how intertwined the sprint community is, and how they use the same coaches. Like she was married to C.J. Hunter, and then had a child with Tim Montgomery, now she is married to Obadele Thompson. Also to see how many big names have been busted, I remember seeing it over time, but now, so many years later you forget that names like Ottey and Christie and Jones and Montgomery were busted right out of the sport for a while.

I realize the distance community is the same with marriages and coaches, they just get caught less often.

coach wrote:

Tim Montgomery was our culprit

I assume stopped doping sometime after he set the WR in 2002 or early 2003.

Thanks for the BALCO reminder.

I was talking to Jonathan Gault today and I said something along the lines of, "The elite in sprinting - well really event - sort of reminds me of the Boston marathon and Meb's win. There aren't that many super elite people three or four. If all of the super studs have an off day or is injured or is scared of testing positive or tests positive (or in Meb's case are stupid and spot in 90 seconds) then it's wide open for the people behind them."

So BALCO makes sense. That wiped out the super elite and then we were left with the normal 4th-10th people battlign it out.

I mean this year besides Gatlin, there was hardly anyone running faster than 9.9 or 19.9. So 10 years ago, I could see it being a 10th of a second slower.

"On the year"

Please stop using the preposition "on" incorrectly. You're often doing it, and it's bloody annoying.

In the year 2003,

In 2003,

During the year 2003,

You went to Yale right?

In the summer of 2003 Trevor Graham anonymously sent a syringe with a synthetic steroid from BALCO to USADA.

I think he did this for revenge against Victor Conte for something but it ironically lead to Trevor Graham being banned for life from the sport when it was determined that he had a doping program for his athletes.

So before the World Championship (but after much of the summer racing) it was made public that this drug called "The Clear" was being used and they could now detect it.

Then you got the slow times in Paris that year.

Patrick Johnson of Australia had the fasted time in the world that year at 9.93 followed by Maurice Greene at 9.94.

They both ran slow at the World Championships (which were held after the BALCO scandal broke out) and they did not make the finals.

I see Jon Drummond and Asafa Powell had a DQ in the quarter finals.

Tim Montgomery and Dwain Chambers, who ran 9.78 (WR) and 9.87 the previous year only manged 5th and 4th in the Paris final and were subsequently DQed due to their involvement with BALCO,

So Paris was slow because everyone had to change their meds.

There were 7 men running sub 10 in the world that year.

Last year 15 men did it so I guess they just naturally train harder now with this perfect drug testing of today.

To continue the story, Trevor Graham had been working with Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery but they left him in 2002, I believe.

In fact they were working with Charlie Francis (Ben Johnson's coach).

In 2004 Justin Gatlin won the Olympics in 9.85. Much faster than Paris was won the year before.

Well, he was working with Trevor Graham.

And he got busted in 2006 and served a 4 year ban while Graham has been given a lifetime ban from coaching.

And now Gatlin ran a lifetime best of 9.77 just last year.

Just the facts.

rojo wrote:

Thanks for the BALCO reminder.

I was talking to Jonathan Gault today

Who is Jon Gault?

""On the year"

Please stop using the preposition "on" incorrectly. You're often doing it, and it's bloody annoying.

In the year 2003,

In 2003,

During the year 2003,

You went to Yale right?"

-Unless you're from the UK, don't use the word, "bloody". Now THAT qualifies as annoying. You sound like one of those guys that likes to pretend he's well read and cerebral. Incidentally, there should be a comma after "Yale". Tool.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Who is Jon Gault?

I see what you did there.

rojo wrote:

... I said something along the lines of, "The elite in sprinting - well really event - sort of reminds me of the Boston marathon and Meb's win. There aren't that many super elite people three or four. If all of the super studs have an off day or is injured or is scared of testing positive or tests positive (or in Meb's case are stupid and spot in 90 seconds) then it's wide open for the people behind them."

I know this is just a message board, but this is just deplorable writing. My god.