Asmae Leghzaoui - The cheat is back - America doesn't care about drug cheats

I agree and think that cheats should face criminal charges for the money that the gained unlawfully. HOWEVER, if there is no lifetime ban in place then it is not the role of a race director to act as the judge and jury.

I agree but I would also hope that the race directors wouldn't make it easy for these creaps. i.e. they shoudln't get their flights paid for, shouldn't get free accomodation or food. That should be something that you loose if you're convicted and come back.

I assume they hire drug cheats for their races because they are cheap.

do you really think anyone besides around 20 people that post here care?

I don't think that race directors should ban these people from their road races (there are, after all, probably a number of convicted felons and worse in a race as big as Bloomsday), but I don't understand why race directors pay for these people to appear at their races. Unlike baseball and football fans, runners actually care about whether the top competitors are clean. I understand that Barry Bonds can still sell tickets to a baseball game and get people to sit through television commercials during a broadcast, but convicted dopers do nothing to enhance the public image of a race or its sponsors.

It is not that difficult.

Most races are open to entries from the public, so you cannot stop someone like Asmae Leghzaoui from entering if she pays her entry fee like everyone else. Then she would be eligible to win prize money like anyone else who is entered (unless it is specified as a separate invitation only race for elites).

HOWEVER, elite athlete coordinators are under no obligation to offer anything else to such an athlete and her agent.

Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable that she is NOT offered:

*a comp'd seeded entry number

* any form of travel assistance, including any air travel

* any form of hotel accomodation

* any form of transportation and meet and greet at the

airport, and same for the return trip

* any invitations to official race functions/parties/dinners

* and it could take a long time to write a check for any

prize money such an athlete might win.

You cannot necessarily deny them entry to the race - BUT you don't have to make it easy for them.

Shouldn't Deena be given the world record for 8K? If her 24:36 is second only to the 24:27.8 Leghzaoui ran at Crazy 8's in 2002, and I believe it is, she should get the mark - that hairy little shit was known to be at the height of the EPO-ism that summer. That the Crazy 8's site still lists her performance as a world record is a huge pox on the race committee.

http://www.crazy8s.org/TopPerformers.htm

Kastor (and bollocks) wrote:

Shouldn't Deena be given the world record for 8K? If her 24:36 is second only to the 24:27.8 Leghzaoui ran at Crazy 8's in 2002, and I believe it is, she should get the mark - that hairy little shit was known to be at the height of the EPO-ism that summer. That the Crazy 8's site still lists her performance as a world record is a huge pox on the race committee.

http://www.crazy8s.org/TopPerformers.htm

As it is not an official world record it might be better to recognise Radcliffe's 8k split from her 10k record. Where incidentally she showed Leghazoui that she was far from the worlds beast even when she was on drugs.

8km Road 24:05+ uWB 23rd Feb 2003, it would be embarrasing to have an 8k record that is 30 seconds slower than a good runners can split in a longer race.

As to hireing ex drug cheats, if you are the organiser of a small race you probably cannot afford first rate or even second rate elite athletes. Using a fast elite athlete that most people have never heard of being banned, but who has won some things that peple have heard of is a good way to reduce your costs. Many of the fun runners will not care about drugs in elite sport anyway.

1 They probably watch sports that informed people know are drug fueled.

2 They will take things that would get them banned athemselves. This could be low level things like cold medicines etc that people hear athletes getting banned for, or dodgy supplements available from gyms etc.

If you want events without drug cheats, you will need to run your own events, and organise for extensive testing of elite and sub elite athletes. The threat of testing will probably mean none of the dodgy athletes will take a risk with appling, they will go where the pickings are less risky. If you can not run an event yourself how about raising the money for testing at some of your local races and trying to persuade the organiser to have the testing done at your expense.

When Leghzaoui ran that 30:29 for 10km in Central Park a few years ago...I was astonished, because she had never shown any track form up till then, and the time she ran in hilly Central Park would have converted to about 29:50-30:00 for 10.000 track.

Knowing now that she doped, one can assume that her true potential at 10km was in the 31:30-32:00 range or slower.

Morocco, being a developing economy - many runners are tempted to take products that will enhance performance. Bottom line is most of these runners come from impoverished backgrounds, and they need money. Many of them will cheat if they feel they can get away with it.

On that note, looks like she's right back at it. Is Leghzaoui now clean, and still this fast? This just in.

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More Than 7,000 Runners Participate in 28th Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon and 10K; Leghzaoui Sets Women's 10K Course Record

Posted Sunday, 22 May, 2005

CLEVELAND - (May 22, 2005) - At Sunday's 28th Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon and 10K, more than 7,000 runners participated and the event highlight was a new women's 10K course record by Asmae Leghzaoui from Morocco in 31 minutes and 10 seconds. The previous record was 31:43 by Sally Barsosio of Kenya.

She ran pretty fast at Bay To Breakers on the 15th too and picked up some good money.

Leghzaoui is making a quick habit of breaking older records on the roads this spring.

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Kibiwot Wins Sallie Mae 10K; Leghzaoui Sets Course Record

By Rachel Zavala

Special to The Washington Post

Monday, April 18, 2005; Page D12

Asmae Leghzaoui was the women's winner in a course record 31:27.

Leghzaoui, 28, from Morocco, finished almost a minute ahead of second-place Tatyana Petrova, a 22-year-old from Russia who ran 32:31. Leghzaoui said her objective was to start relaxed, then "push to the max" in the final stretch.

"I am very happy with my performance," she said through an interpreter. "I met my race objective and kept pushing myself at the end."

The previous record of 32:00 was set by Jill Hunter of Britain in 1991. Leghzaoui raced for the first time since giving birth to a daughter in February 2004. She set the then-10K road world best of 30:29 at the New York Mini Marathon in June 2002.

The irony is that the drugs probably did not help her performance much, if any, and she had to lose two years of her competitive career to find this out.

What makes you think she isn't drugging now?

ghost wrote:

Morocco, being a developing economy - many runners are tempted to take products that will enhance performance. Bottom line is most of these runners come from impoverished backgrounds, and they need money. Many of them will cheat if they feel they can get away with it.

I doubt Moroccans cheat any more or less than athletes from "developed" countries. If you doubt that, look at the number of US high school kids who take steroids - an estimated 1/2 million. All elites must be tempted at least sometimes to cheat - some do and some don't.

Assuming the tests are accurate, a lifetime ban is appropriate. If you cheat once you'll cheat again, but just be more careful in not getting caught.

"Assuming the tests are accurate, a lifetime ban is appropriate. If you cheat once you'll cheat again, but just be more careful in not getting caught."

First off, too much of a generalization to say if you cheat once you will cheat again. I could come up with a ton of different examples which might or might not be true - such as if you cheat on your spouse once you will do it again. Is this true? Not in every case.

What I see missing in each and every thread on this posting is a statement that Leghzaoui accepted her punishment - a ban from competition - and has now returned to the roads. Society calls for punishment - for most of us it is called jail - and once we have repaid our so called "debt to society" we are free to return to society and resume our lives. In some cases there are permanent punishments attached even after serving your time - such as being unable to hold an elected office, voting or carrying a gun, but otherwise you are free to rejoin society.

Leghzaoui served her time as required. Race directors are not under any ban from governing bodies not to allow her to race, so she is hitting the roads and running some fast times - and if you look at her she is a greyhound.

Now Marion Jones is being subjected to a boycott by European meet directors, but this is different then the case at hand - Marion has not been found guilty of any doping violations - yet. The meet directors are free to withhold invitations to her as they desire, just as US race directors could for Leghzaoui. However, I think the idea Leghzaoui did her time and now they will let her race.

Questionable wrote:

What makes you think she isn't drugging now?

exactly. funny that she wins a 10k back east, then bloomsday, then B2B, and now this rite aid win. that's what, 4 races in 5 weeks, all with insane times. heck, she was less than a minute behind gilmore at B2B. perhaps she's just got better stuff now?

Is this for real? Is her agent still Hussein Makke? I met this guy at a race a while back and he is 'sketchy' to say the least. He had Lagouzi, who tested positive for EPO; Leonard Muchera (sp?), who Ran a 3:49 mile and then practically faded away. He carries himself as someone who is arrogant and a 'know it all.' He once told me that he could take any runner and make them a world class athlete if they would do extactly what he said. He told me once that Asmae did 10X1000m in around 2:45-2:50 with a short 100m jog before her 10k/8k road records. That is a tough workout altogether, something I doubt I'll be able to ever do. Hmm. but with EPO or THG or such that workout could be doable. Asmae clean is only capable of around a high 32 min 10k. Give or take.

As I've posted before, I think the drugs the athletes MAY be using are way beyond what we currently test for.