Kelly Sotherton, Steve Cram and the rest of the Brits

The race was 2 days ago and Gatlin is still getting slammed in the British press as if he is a demon with out a soul. Gatlin's positive was over a decade ago and the Brits have made him the epicenter of everything wrong with our sport.

More obvious doper than Mo F wrote:

If Gatlin was now an also ran, he wouldn't get booed.

True and he also wouldn't be receiving the sudden outpouring of love and respect from letsrun. Right in the feels.

Gatlin has unfortunately become the poster boy for the failings of the IAAF around drugs. They should now introduce life bans for steroids and epo. It's not that big of a deal. Track and field careers are already short and mostly dissappointing anyway. There are other ways to make money and other things you can do with your life.

It also shouldn't be seen as analogous to business or politics where people might deserve a second chance. It's a game. With rules. If the rules can't be enforced consistently then the audience isn't going to invest.

Deanouk wrote:

Do you really believe that in international sport with multi national federations, that the Brits are somehow in charge and wield that much power? Lol.

How is that even a question?

We learned from Diack, Coe's spiritual leader, how much power the IAAF President wields. Now the Brit Coe is President, and put his British buddies into various fancy positions at the IAAF. Next add the Brit Reedie as WADA President to the picture.

Then consider how well the small UK did in the last championships, in comparison to the dirty big Russia, and compare that to the situation from ten years ago.

Finally, let's look at what happened with Paula's off score cases and Mo's doorbell story under Coe's and Reedie's leadership, i.e. how they got away easily.

All coincidence, right? Nothing to see here, rekrunner 2. Lol.

Yeah, look at the 'respect' this site shows Mo Farah, Paula Radcliffe, Rob Young etc.

It's a question for the basic reason that it casts legitimate doubt on a claim that is ridiculous on its face.You just pick and chose what you want to learn, because, as you've often said, you are "having fun now". Looking at other details "bores" you, so you just pick and chose the fun ones.However, while you were goofing off, you missed several important lessons:- as powerful as you think "we learned" Diack was within the IAAF, he spectacularly failed to get away with Russian sanction cover-ups, and attempted bribery, thanks to the internal efforts from within the IAAF, and external details from Russian whistleblowers. Every athlete that was meant to be sanctioned, was eventually sanctioned. Coe is implementing WADA recommendations that make the IAAF president less powerful, by adding more checks, so this kind of thing cannot happen again, and you think he is still getting away with doping cover-ups of British athletes, in the wake of the IAAF-Russian scandal -- because no one is looking at his performance?- under Reedie, WADA has conducted several detailed investigations, led by Canadians and Germans, leading to a complete ban of Russia, and lined with recommendations that the IAAF improve its governance structures.- Paula's off-scores was always a non-story from the start to the end, for a long list of reasons that have been detailed, backed up by anti-doping peer reviewed science, and in line with anti-doping regulations at the time, and today -- reasons that were never seriously disputed at any level in "informed" anti-doping circles. Paula got away so easily, as did many of the "1 in 7" medal winners, because they were tabloid accusations that largely lacked merit or substance.- as was the "Mo's doorbell" story -- Mo got a "missed test" just like every athlete would, in accordance with the rules that govern missed tests. Mo got away with it, assuming he got away with anything to any extent, as easily as any athlete would have gotten away with it.When you start looking deeper at all these things, there really aren't that many coincidences, and there isn't really that much to see here.

casual obsever wrote:

Deanouk wrote:

Do you really believe that in international sport with multi national federations, that the Brits are somehow in charge and wield that much power? Lol.

How is that even a question?

We learned from Diack, Coe's spiritual leader, how much power the IAAF President wields. Now the Brit Coe is President, and put his British buddies into various fancy positions at the IAAF. Next add the Brit Reedie as WADA President to the picture.

Then consider how well the small UK did in the last championships, in comparison to the dirty big Russia, and compare that to the situation from ten years ago.

Finally, let's look at what happened with Paula's off score cases and Mo's doorbell story under Coe's and Reedie's leadership, i.e. how they got away easily.

All coincidence, right? Nothing to see here, rekrunner 2. Lol.

Awesome story, Gary.

P.S. Glad to have you back!

I never realised how bitter and jealous the US were towards the British!

Only a country that voted in Donald Trump would support a two time drug cheat

When Coe's right hand man was part of Diack's corruption, and Coe himself certainly did nothing about it at the time, while being paid by Nike, having toxoplasmosis serious enough to keep him out a long time, and likely blood doping and using steroids, and then too when Sky is getting constant TUE's and pharmaceuticals, hard to say the UK has equal testing. How many times did Farah train and lie about it with Aden?

Oh come on rekrunner, no time for proper trolling anymore? Please put some more effort in that.

Stop making up stuff. What bored me, is your lame trolling, and I sometimes had fun pointing out your lies. But that really got old very quickly.

You are making up stuff again. Diack was president since 1999, and the first of his misgivings came out in 2014, not firstly thanks to "internal efforts from within the IAAF", but thanks to "the Russian sports agent Andrey Baranov".

And by definition only those athletes were sanctioned whose names came up, almost exclusively Russians, and 1 - 2 Turkish athletes. You cannot know or claim that all of Diack's blackmails were uncovered.

... continuously stonewalling and fighting against transparency, see for example

and his fight against the Tübingen study, revealing over 30% of self-admitted dopers in Daegu.

Oh please, not this again. Remember that even the expert firstly chosen by the IAAF after her 2012 ABP infraction didn't fall for her altitude excuse, and that in 2003 not only her Hct skyrocketed by 30% some 90 minutes after racing for 67 minutes in the low 70s, but also her ret-% miraculously went down.

Again, you only look at half of the facts at best. The rules explicitly require a ban for every missed test unless it was "inadvertently" missed. Choosing to not open the front door for the tester hardly qualifies as "inadvertently" missed.

OP, nice summary. At last some thoughtful commentary here on LR. It should be dignified by thoughtful response.

I like both Sotherton and Gatlin. Gatlin's previous guilt is beyond doubt but so too as Coe stated categorically, is the fact that under IAAF rules he is ELIGIBLE to compete. And he has been for some considerable time. So he gets to run and if he wins, it's legit. Their rules. Not his.

The facts Gatlin can point to include:

a) Longest time between global 100m titles for any athlete in history

and

b) Doing so after spending some time in prison where he maintained a world-class training regime.

Both of these accomplishments are unique in our sport's history.

Actually, I think (b) has something to do with his record longevity. An enforced mid-career break prevented late-20s burnout, allowed him to rethink his technique, training and responses from previous races without the pressure of imminent races, plan and work on each aspect of his sport, isolate, experiement and work on specific factors, and finally, work develop a longer-term mental horizon and all these have been beneficial in the long run.

OTOH Sotherton is rightly angry that she was dispossessed of medals and moments on the podium by drug cheats - not all of whom have been caught - which means she has to channel her ire at the target whom everyone knows is guilty. OK. She can't launch an unexpurgated rant at others without proof. That's not because she can't express herself...

You should all know, as those of us who have interacted with her or watched her during her competition days can testify... Kelly can swear in a very un-lady-like way :) She isn't like FoXXy who is ultra-measured, almost reticent. The fact she says nothing about the specific others who cheated her on TV indicates she feels constrained. But she can lash at Gatlin, so she does.

Gatlin experiences far less - in many cases, no - ire from his current fellow competitors even when he beats them than he does from those who have suffered like Sotherton (and Radcliffe and others) and who can't feel any sense of specific retribution. Look at Gatlin's exchanges with Bolt and Bolt's public defense of Gatlin at the medalists' conference for evidence.

"7. Not being British, perhaps I will never fully understand the love affair with Bolt and more specifically the Jamaicans. I find that odd for someone who is so anti-doping. Hopefully you know that on a per capita basis, Jamaica is among the top nations with doping offenses, in addition to currently having a lacks anti-doping program. Btw, don't take anything away from Gatlin and Coleman's victory. Bolt was not out of shape, he is old, he has been on the decline for 7 years and like all great athletes, you eventfully get beat by better athletes"

Jamaican culture is a huge part of modern British culture. So maybe read a book once in a while or travel the world a bit.

Also if Bolt is "old" then what does that make Gatlin??

Bolt obviously doesnt train that hard in the offseason and it caught up with him. He isn't old you prat.

The new British Race wrote:

Deanouk wrote:

Lol. Please explain what the British Doping Establishment actually is?

British athletes have been tested to the same rigorous standards as US athletes for decades. Which country has had the most positive results?

Do you really believe that in international sport with multi national federations, that the Brits are somehow in charge and wield that much power? Lol.

If we were this state sponsored doping behemoth, do you really think we'd have just 1 medal half way through the World Champs?

Comments like yours are not helpful and actually verge on racism.

Those people are all from the British "race"? lol

Apart from bad teeth what features have they all been bred to have over the eons?

OK lets just call you a xenophobe then. You sound like a POS.

I cringe when I her individual athletes booed. Opposition sports teams maybe fair game because their fans will do the same to your team. But booing individuals worries me. Gatlin is a cheat but he is not the only one, if this is to continue do it to ALL THE CHEATS (Blake, Powell etc). Mind you the crowds maybe booing all meet long.

All your arguments are a long list of tabloid headlines that have never panned out -- mainly due to lack of merit or substance.Everything with you is like the 2012 point. Upon preliminary inspection, there might be something there, but upon deeper scrutiny, it is rejected. This point was never seriously disputed, except repeatedly by non-experts like you, because you never move beyond the preliminary step, that has long since been dismissed.Did her 2003 Hct skyrocket 30%? We cannot say with any degree of certainty above what is required for the tabloid journalism that printed it.Regarding Diack, you accused me of making up stuff, then essentially support me - Baranov was representing a key Russian whistleblower. We also learned that there was constant pressure all along from within the IAAF, all the way up to Diack, to push for the recommended sanctions. Diack wasn't all-powerful after all, and did not remain unchecked for long. Coe did not become more powerful than Diack was.Yet you still cling to some hope that maybe Diack blackmailed other athletes we haven't heard of yet, maybe even as early as 2003, without any supporting facts or evidence, apparently arguing the passive double negative that you have not yet been proved completely wrong.Did Mo chose not to open the door? -- again pure speculation on your part, again without substance.Did Coe stonewall? He said he told the British MPs everything he knew, and that there was nothing further he could add. This should not be misconstrued as stonewalling.Did the IAAF block publication of the Tubingen study? Did they raise legitimate concerns about the study? Did the University of Tubingen address these concerns? Not really much evidence except for allegations and denials.I am always happy to hear arguments based on real evidence. Linking to a British newspaper printing allegations without evidence is not the kind of evidence that will move any arguments forward.

Incorrigible. Are the Guardian and Independent really tabloid for you, Gary?

Spot-on.

Yeah but he wasn't banned for life.

And why aren't you looking askance at Farah? At the very least he's connected to Salazar. And his transformation is more than shadey.

Gabriella2 wrote:

1. Weak attempt to justify the two time drug cheater.

Gatlin is not a two time drug cheater. In USADA's own words:

"Mr. Gatlin neither cheated nor intended to cheat. He did not intend to enhance his performance nor, given his medical condition, did his medication in fact enhance his performance."

You Ms., is a big fat moron.

xcvxcvxcvx wrote:

When Coe's right hand man was part of Diack's corruption, and Coe himself certainly did nothing about it at the time, while being paid by Nike, having toxoplasmosis serious enough to keep him out a long time, and likely blood doping and using steroids, and then too when Sky is getting constant TUE's and pharmaceuticals, hard to say the UK has equal testing. How many times did Farah train and lie about it with Aden?

Knight has been removed from office under Coe's presidency because of scrutiny and findings by an independent commission.

There is little Coe could have done about Diack when Vice President. Far better to become President and then sort out problems. Which he is doing.

Up to half the world's population is or will be infected by toxoplasmosis. It is predominantly contracted through undercooked meat or unhygienic preparation of food. Studies show elite sportsmen more likely to be affected by symptoms due to stresses put on immune system through constant physical exertion (Navratilova, English Royal Ballet). Not evidence of doping and certainly no evidence of 'likely steroid' use.

Farah is an individual case and I have to admit I have my suspicions. But until he tests positive that is all they are.

The results of the current World Champs are rather telling IMO, with many more countries, particularly European ones, getting on the medal table.

The winning times are generally down and while those Europeans who have won medals have not produced anything 'out of the ordinary' , many from nations with a history of many medals and poor national testing procedures, have been under-performing in their droves. It's good to see that the IAAF are now getting more serious and rigorous with their testing. Still some countries need to be brought in line though.

The Brits, have 1 medal, so clearly they are exempt from testing and have their drug advantages covered up by Coe and the rest of the British Drug Cartel! LOL