You think it's bad in Kenya? Wait until they open Pandora's box: Ethiopia.
A very telling article, thanks for posting.
"It is among this class of competitor -- professional grade, but not elite -- that doping is most rampant and unchecked, athletes say."
A perfect example of this is the Gold Coast, Australia. They started bringing unknown Kenyan's who didn't have any previous performances of note who would pick up $20k/30k, one of them, Kenneth Mungara, was over 40 years old, was a barber by trade and starting running late in life, he ran a best time at the Gold Coast of 2:08:42 lol.
It's all a bit of joke really. wrote:
A perfect example of this is the Gold Coast, Australia. They started bringing unknown Kenyan's who didn't have any previous performances of note who would pick up $20k/30k, one of them, Kenneth Mungara, was over 40 years old, was a barber by trade and starting running late in life, he ran a best time at the Gold Coast of 2:08:42 lol.
Nonsense. When he was 33, Mungara ran 2:10 in Mombasa, which is amazing, and ran 2:07 at both Toronto and Prague when he was 37.
Insightful article...but not surprising. A second or third tier Kenyan making a few thousand a year from race earnings can easily have a good livelihood for themselves and their families. It beats the slave labor of working out in the fields for peanuts.
"Alex, who started using EPO in 2017, said he had never been tested. "In life, you have to take risks to win something reasonable," he said."
And no testing for this class of runners? Well...what do they expect then? They'll keep that pharmacist guy in Iten in business. Lol.
No testing = full throttle doping = significant performance improvement.
This article presents information that undermines my stance on this issue, so I'm going to ignore it because it also hurt my feelings. As a rebuttal I'm going to list a few wild claims that I want to be true because it makes me feel good inside:
1. IAAF wants to end the Kenyan dominance in mid and long distance running because Africa is a poor continent, and promoting western, Japanese and Chinese stars will generate more attention and revenue.
2. Kenyans (and Ethiopians to a degree) are genetically superior runners, and close to all 'doping busts' stems from corrupt anti-doping officials paid by competitors to remove them from contention. The remaining 'busts' are actually medical exemptions for people being treated for anemia.
3. Doping in western countries is omnipresent and way more sophisticated than anything happening in Kenya (there are no Kenyan dopers). This has went on undetected for decades, and the cheaters and their doctors are always 2 steps ahead of the anti-doping efforts.
4. In Kenya running is an accepted way of life. Everyone looks up to the runners and cheers them on when they're out and about on their training sessions. It falls naturally to them and they become excellent runners with little to no effort. In the western world running is an unhealthy obsession with drugs, expensive gear, systems and futile attempts at becoming competitive. There is nothing natural or beautiful about it. No pure souls.
My position is reinforced and I feel so much better about myself.
Avocado's Number wrote:
It's all a bit of joke really. wrote:
A perfect example of this is the Gold Coast, Australia. They started bringing unknown Kenyan's who didn't have any previous performances of note who would pick up $20k/30k, one of them, Kenneth Mungara, was over 40 years old, was a barber by trade and starting running late in life, he ran a best time at the Gold Coast of 2:08:42 lol.
Nonsense. When he was 33, Mungara ran 2:10 in Mombasa, which is amazing, and ran 2:07 at both Toronto and Prague when he was 37.
You may think it's nonsense, but everything in that post is factual.
https://gc2018.com/article/kenyas-kenneth-mungara-race-ready-44Sounds like the pro-cycling syndrome (Lance Armstrong comes to mind)
Kenneth M wrote:
This article presents information that undermines my stance on this issue, so I'm going to ignore it because it also hurt my feelings. As a rebuttal I'm going to list a few wild claims that I want to be true because it makes me feel good inside:
1. IAAF wants to end the Kenyan dominance in mid and long distance running because Africa is a poor continent, and promoting western, Japanese and Chinese stars will generate more attention and revenue.
2. Kenyans (and Ethiopians to a degree) are genetically superior runners, and close to all 'doping busts' stems from corrupt anti-doping officials paid by competitors to remove them from contention. The remaining 'busts' are actually medical exemptions for people being treated for anemia.
3. Doping in western countries is omnipresent and way more sophisticated than anything happening in Kenya (there are no Kenyan dopers). This has went on undetected for decades, and the cheaters and their doctors are always 2 steps ahead of the anti-doping efforts.
4. In Kenya running is an accepted way of life. Everyone looks up to the runners and cheers them on when they're out and about on their training sessions. It falls naturally to them and they become excellent runners with little to no effort. In the western world running is an unhealthy obsession with drugs, expensive gear, systems and futile attempts at becoming competitive. There is nothing natural or beautiful about it. No pure souls.
My position is reinforced and I feel so much better about myself.
Nobody really gives a rats tail about your feelings, neither your obvious blindness....btw welcome back, El K.
Coe doped, Cram probably doped
Jzs wrote:
Coe doped, Cram probably doped
Cram or Clam?
X10 wrote:
You think it's bad in Kenya? Wait until they open Pandora's box: Ethiopia.
Yes exactly, the problem for Kenya is that it is one of the most British places in Africa so it is easy for Western journalists to visit and investigate. Whereas Ethiopia is a real basket case, very backwards and thus it is hard to find out what is going on. I'd say they are twice as dirty as Kenya.
So Seppelt stated that epo was €68 back in 2015/2016, this article states, "a pharmacist in Eldoret, a city near Iten, who sells EPO to runners for $20 (17 euros) a dose." That's some serious epo deflation, I blame the Central Bank of Kenya, they need to do a round of quantitative easing to lift the price.
Subway Surfers wrote:
Whereas Ethiopia is a real basket case, very backwards and thus it is hard to find out what is going on.
Also very controlled from the very top (which seems to slowly relax a bit now?), which means any IAAF tester's presence would be well known before arrival, and the local testers, well, Russia comes to mind.
This is the argument of every person caught cheating, from Armstrong and all other cyclists who have been caught to Ben Johnson whose coach said that you either take the PEDs or set your blocks up a couple of metres behind the rest of the 100 field.
You can't use that statement. That is the cyclists statement!
What is “cheating” is arbitrary and fluctuates throughout the history of the sport.
It used to be cheating to accept money for being an athlete.
Is doping a health risk? Maybe. But I also don’t see a ton of these guys dying well ahead of their time. If anything, these drugs and procedures seem to make them more healthy and fit, right? These are measures meant to improve performance, and we treat it like they are shooting heroin.
Remove all the “cheating” debate outside of something like obstructing another runner or cutting a course, and let the rest just happen. Every popular sport has this mentality. It’s the one that cling to these flippant morality rules that are unable to hold anyone’s interest.
Coevett wrote:
https://japantoday.com/category/sports/%27i-cheat-because-others-cheat%27-kenya-struggles-against-doping
"Nearly a thousand Kenyans earn a living competing in marathons across the globe, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit, runners whose times -- though unnoteworthy at home -- would make them stars anywhere else."
Nearly a "thousand" Kenyan marathoners earn a living racing? Wow! ? (how many American marathoners earn a living racing? Maybe a few dozen?).
And none of these athletes are part of the testing pool? (how many Kenyans are currently part of the testing pool?).
Do they at least test the winners of these lower tier marathons that these Kenyans compete in?
Everyone is cheating
Kenya did rather poorly when the EPO era begun
1996: 1 gold medal
2000: 2 gold medal
2004: 1 gold medal
Meanwhile the gold medals were going to European and North African runners who in hindsight were obviously doping: Fermin Cacho, Vejborn Rodal, Nils Schumann, El Guerrouj, Morceli, Bordin, Wang Junxia, Svetlana Masterkova, Gabriella Szabo, Borzakovsky, Kelly Holmes et al.
So they learned that to compete with everyone else they have to dope.
As I said earlier however, Kenyan doping is not as sophisticated as the North American or European one. They still rely on bribing testers with money for tea. Whereas their western counterparts have medical doctors who have designed methodologies to stay ahead of the testing regime
Cool story bro. Another 100 Kenyan busts down the road and you'll still be telling yourself it.