Kvothe, I agree 90% of what you say, but not about the first paragraph.
"This is wrong. We have definitive proof, facts, that epo works. Asbel Kiprop, Rita Jeptoo, Jemima Sumgong, and the list goes on. Only Renato is denying that epo works".
We have proof and facts that Asbel Kiprop, Rita Jeptoo, Jemima Sumgong TOOK EPO. We don't have any proof EPO made them better, because nobody knows when they started to take EPO, and thinking they took EPO at their top is only a speculation without any basis.
About the other things, I fully agree. Several times I already wrote that the EPO cheaters (who can't take EPO casually : or they inject, or don't take), at difference of the cheaters for steroids, that are in small quantity in many medicines made in India or China or Asian Countries and are the medicines we can find in the Kenyan Pharmacies, MUST BE BANNED FOR MORE LONG TIME AND MUST LOSE ALL THEIR PREVIOUS RESULTS, including the one achieved when they were still youth.
This NOT because they can have real advantages, BUT BECAUSE ARE AGAINST THE ETHIC OF SPORT, AND (also if I think they can't have real advantage, if well trained) IN ANY CASE TAKE EPO FOR CHEATING.
I wrote already that doping depends on the education. How many are, in Kenya, the coaches who try to educate the athletes in every direction, including how to organize their life ? I can give you few names : Patrick Sang, who every two weeks has a meeting with all the athletes of Kaptagat camp, speaking about important arguments involving not only their present activity, but also their future life ; Brother Colm, who gives clear values to young athletes working with him ; and, excuse me if I name myself, Renato Canova, who, such as Patrick Sang, has frequent meetings with the athletes, and spend a lot of time for speaking with everybody on individual basis.
Do you think that, for example, the fact in less than one year in the Iten Camp of Global, that I built with the big help of John Litei, we produced in HM athletes like Eric Kiptanui (58'42") coming from 1500m, Daniel Kipchumba (59'06") coming from 8'34" in steeple, and Josphat Boit (59'19") coming from nothing because was selected in June 2017 in a race for Police, is something connected with training only ? This is, at first, the product of an educational system where we put in the first position moral values, and when they have these moral values, is easier to move them to very hard training creating a group of athletes with big ethic.
In all this situation, all the athletes know my position, that is based on two different points :
1- Ethical, because everybody must respect the other and needs to increase the confidence in himself competing in CLEAN way not against, but WITH the other athletes
2- Physiological (involving at the end the mentality, too), because I explain them WHY with some type of training EPO can't give any advantage. True or not true, this is my position, and because of this position we can produce athletes at the top of the World (so, if EPO works, athletes go to lose something in some other side, if CLEAN athletes at the end are better than DOPED athletes).
I know that in some Country there are coaches thinking doping can be part of training, and without it is not possible to succeed. This was, for example, the situation of Russia when I was called their (October 2015) by Vadim Zelechenok, at the moment acting as President of the Federation, for teaching to Russian coaches HOW IS POSSIBLE TO REACH TOP PERFORMANCES TRAINING IN CLEAN WAY. In their training programs, the assumption of different type of doping was considered part of training.
I started asking " which is the best performance in 5000m you had this year ?", and they told me 13'36" by one of the Rybakov twins. So I started to explain : "Do you know that in 1957, 58 years ago, one athlete of Russia, running completely alone in Rome, with a track of earth, was able to run 13'35" that was WR ? The athlete was Vladimir Kuts. Do you know all the world learnt from your athletes, like Pyotr Bolotnikov, winning Olympic 1960 and bettering the WR of 10000m in 1962, advanced training methods regarding the aerobic development ? So, which is the effect of the doping you systematically use, when NOBODY THIS YEAR WAS ABLE TO RUN LIKE KUTS 58 YEARS AGO ?"
And after I started the technical lesson.
Believe me, the moral values for running fast are something very far from every kind of doping.
Maybe I'm an ingenuous dreamer, but with my ingenuity I continue to produce top runners in different events, and people working with me share the same values. In our mind, doping NEVER was, NEVER is and NEVER will be an option.