luv2run wrote:
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.htmlI 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.
Cannot tell if you are naive, ignorant or being sarcastic. Anabolic steroids were in use.
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.