1980 Olympic 100m Champion, Scottish Allan Wells, accused of doping in a BBC documentary

"Wells denies the allegations and insists hard work and new training methods at the time were the secret to his success."

Sounds familiar

New Training methods at the time? I saw training videos of Wells but i didn't see nothing "new" (unlike Borzov's regime in the late 60's, for example)

But other people may be can describe more on that matter.

I heard that something like this was coming up. Did McMasters and Wells train together? Does anyone know the nature of their relationship other than as relay team mates?

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Ben L Wrong wrote:

New Training methods at the time? I saw training videos of Wells but i didn't see nothing "new" (unlike Borzov's regime in the late 60's, for example)

But other people may be can describe more on that matter.

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It's very easy for anyone to make an 'accusation' against an athlete based on all sorts of motivating factors; jealousy, falling out, etc.
It is a sad indictment of the sport that some on here are already sentencing him as guilty based on rumours and the comments of people making a documentary. Maybe we should wait until we've seen the documentary and then judge for ourselves how reliable and damning the evidence they put forward is.
Wells may well have taken PEDs, but if that was the case then I suspect most of the others in the final were probably in the same boat. Sprinters, as we know from the 88 Olympic final, are regularly found to have been enhanced. And this isn't justifying or excusing cheating. I strongly believe that all cheaters need to be banned for at least 4 years.
But, to condemn Wells and at the same time imply Leonard (from Cuba!!), Quarrie and Borzov were all clean, is somewhat naive. I know which of those 4 would have had the most testing during their careers.

I look forward to seeing the Panorama programme and then making my mind up based on all the evidence revealed.

1) I never mentioned Borzov as a clean athlete in my mind. Instead, I think that Borzov combined well his doping regime with an elite training program (similar to charlie Francis group)

2) I never said that Wells was necessarily dirty, I suspect Wells, (which is other story) if you read closely, I only said that I thought that T&F doping became popular in the 80's, but recently I discovered that there was many athletes on the juice, as far as the perennial 60's.

And why you are against making accusations without proof, but at the same time, you insinuated that Cuba is a dirty country? About that opinion, I'ts subjective, probably biased, no real proof, but In my view, Cuba is the cleanest country (if you put on the table the 15 countries with more medals in T&F History). Don't have many arguments here, only the positives from IAAF list.

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Ben L Wrong wrote:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/dick-fights-drugs-claim-1580224.html

This article add some thoughts:

"...There is no truth in the allegations made about my involvement in 'acquiescing' to the use of drugs by athletes,'' Dick said. "I have throughout my coaching career, when asked, educated athletes as to how these drugs work and the damage they do whilst also forcefully pointing out that taking such drugs to improve athletic performance is cheating..."

"education" was similar to that "education" from USADA before L.A Games back in 84?

"...This story is nine years out of date. The matter of drug abuse in the Seventies and early Eighties was dealt with through the independent inquiry set up by the sport in 1987. As a direct result, we introduced some of the toughest testing and punishment measure..."

by 1995, there was no such tough testing regime. Furthermore, it was the EPO golden era.

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Ben L Wrong wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-3092628/Allan-Wells-hits-doping-claims-never-taken-drugs-just-not-lived-myself.html

I thought that sprinters from the 70's were clean...but now I think that doping became widespread even in the 60's. Probably the fastests clean athletes at the time (60's/70's were Enrique Figuerola and Silvio Leonard from Cuba-, or Don Quarrie from Jamaica.

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Who is this Mohamed Ali? Must be club fighter is he related to Muhammad Ali?

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Ben L Wrong wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-3092628/Allan-Wells-hits-doping-claims-never-taken-drugs-just-not-lived-myself.html

I thought that sprinters from the 70's were clean...but now I think that doping became widespread even in the 60's. Probably the fastests clean athletes at the time (60's/70's were Enrique Figuerola and Silvio Leonard from Cuba-, or Don Quarrie from Jamaica.

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....for your mind to be blown.

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luv2run wrote:

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Ben L Wrong wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-3092628/Allan-Wells-hits-doping-claims-never-taken-drugs-just-not-lived-myself.html

I thought that sprinters from the 70's were clean...but now I think that doping became widespread even in the 60's. Probably the fastests clean athletes at the time (60's/70's were Enrique Figuerola and Silvio Leonard from Cuba-, or Don Quarrie from Jamaica.

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Cannot tell if you are naive, ignorant or being sarcastic. Anabolic steroids were in use.

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Coe, Ovett and Cram didn't ' come out of nowhere' at same time as Wells.
Wells emerged in 78 when he was already in his late 20's.
Ovett was European 800 silver medalist in 1974, at 18!
Coe was European Junior medalist in 75 at 18, and European indoor Champ at 20.
Cram was European Junior Champ in 79 over 3000m at 18.
All were successful Juniors and Youths.

And non retired befor Johnson got busted in 88. Coe won silver at the following year's World Cup, and neither Ovett or Cram retired until well into the 90's.

So your 'facts' are not accurate at all.

And when did Coe cover up the non compliance of Russia and Jamaica? With regards to the former, he simply said it would be pointless banning a whole nation from competing due to the corruption of a few. He was rightly in favour of working with them and monitoring their drug programme closely.

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coach d wrote:

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luv2run wrote:

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Ben L Wrong wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-3092628/Allan-Wells-hits-doping-claims-never-taken-drugs-just-not-lived-myself.html

I thought that sprinters from the 70's were clean...but now I think that doping became widespread even in the 60's. Probably the fastests clean athletes at the time (60's/70's were Enrique Figuerola and Silvio Leonard from Cuba-, or Don Quarrie from Jamaica.

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Cannot tell if you are naive, ignorant or being sarcastic. Anabolic steroids were in use.

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British gold medalist pentathlete Mary Peters made this comment in her book in 1976:

"A medical research team in the United States attempted to set up extensive research into the effects of steroids on weightlifters and throwers, only to discover that there were so few who weren't taking them that they couldn't establish any worthwhile comparisons."

And it wasn't just weightlifters and throwers. Bob Schul has made comments to Jeff Cohen about people he beat in 1964 running amazingly faster times in 1965.

It actually never occurred to me (because he's white?) that Wells might be doping, but when you consider that he basically came out of nowhere, had a very short competitive career, and used techniques (speedball) that don't make much sense to most sprint coaches, I guess the allegations don't surprise me. Similarly now, with Coe trying to cover up rampant noncompliance with the World Antidoping Code by Russia and Jamaica, I will point out that Coe, Cram, and Ovett:

--also came out of nowhere at the same time as Wells

--suddenly retired from the competitive scene just before Ben Johnson tested positive

--Unlike mid distance runners from the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and British Sprinters, no one from the UK has approached their times in the modern drug testing era.

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In the early 80s I worked with a guy who sometimes trained with Wells. His stories confirmed AW was doping, but even then we all 'knew' anyway - it was pretty obvious looking at his physique change and career arc. Nobody really cared because ever since those Press sisters were busted in the early 60's it was assumed that sprints and throws were enhanced.

didn't Cuba have a training camp in the Eastern Block?

Wasn't David Jenkins supplying steroids (which he produced at a factory in Mexico) to loads of British athletes from the mid 70s through to around 1987 when he was busted?