Weldon Johnson wrote: <What? So you read an article saying that agents are giving drugs to athletes and suddenly you are now suspicious of people in track and field might be possibly using drugs. You had to be extremely naive to not think there was a possibility that some of the top Africans were on the juice. Maybe I'm a little closer to the scene but I've heard some what I believe to be reliable reports of some prominent agents juicing they're African runners.>
Weldon, First I would like to thank you for your LetsRun site, it is excellent and you are doing a lot for the sport by running it. Also I would like to congratulate you on you two sub 28:10 runs. Actually, I am not the slight bit naïve on African distance runners drug use. I have been on this list since 1996 or so, and I began raising questions about this way back then. However, as Randy Treadway pointed out, there was always an angry, vicious outrage against anyone who dared to suggest the Kenyans would even consider using drugs. Early in the existence of this list, Garry Hill would point out how widespread drug use was in our sport. However, for business reasons he did an abrupt about face and decided it was bad to talk about drugs. Any talk of drugs and he would immediately attack the person and do it with extreme vulgar language including profanities on this list. His new hire Dan Lilot dutifully followed his leader and did the same. So I stopped talking about it. I only bring it up again because since I raised my suspicions, several African distance runners have been caught and now Kenyans are starting to tell the truth as evidenced in the African Standard article. If the Kenyan federation is going to have a true inquiry into this as they state such as the Canadians did with Ben Johnson, the lid could be blown off this disgraceful scandal and it would be good for the sport in the long run, despite what Garry Hill thinks. Weldon also wrote: <And why do you draw the line at Yobed Ondieki. Drugs have been in the sport way before him. If you're going to suddenly go back and be suspicious why start there?> I did not arbitrarily pick Yobes Ondieki as you suspect. Sure drugs have been in our sport since the early 50s, but EPO did not become widespread in cycling until about 1990. Shortly thereafter I believe it invaded our sport via an agent for the Kenyans who was a former cycling agent who got banned from that sport for drugs. Rapidly the use spread beyond this agent. You may have not been a big fan of the sport when Ondieki ran his 26:58 but I was. At the time it was absolutely shocking and also inexplicable. He had been on the Pro circuit for years and was very good, but he had done nothing to indicate he was capable of anything close to this type of barrier shattering performance. Even more surprising was his rapid exodus from the sport despite being at the top so briefly. Long time fans were stunned. Then suddenly everyone was running under 27. I am not saying he or anyone else specifically used drugs, but I started calling everything I was seeing in the 90s distance avalanche starting with Ondieki into question. Paul Talbot wrote: <How is this new or surprising?> Of course it isn’t but it may be for all the people who savagely attacked anyone who tried to say drugs may be involved in the Kenyan performances. Anyone remember when John Manners told us all that the Kenyans were morally incapbable? B. Kunnath wrote in response to Weldon’s statement: little closer to the scene but I've heard some what I believe to be reliable reports of some prominent agents juicing they're African runners. <This is the kind of utter crap Id expect to see on your message boards. If you really DO have some news worth sharing, then surely this would be the best site for it. so either put up or shut up. Im tired of listening to this kind of crap about people "knowing", about drug taking but choosing to keep it to themselves. Surely you're then guilty of hiding these drug takers as well. Just exactly who are they, or better yet who told you.> See what I mean Weldon, people don’t even want to discuss the possibility (laugh). They just want every to believe all the great performances are genuine. Randy Treadway wrote: >No one, myself included, thinks that every single African is clean Why then, in years past, on this very list, any time questions were brought up about the Africans, people who had spent time with them dashed into the conversation like lightning to claim that cheating was simply against the nature and motivation of the Africans they'd spent time with. Where are those people now? The silence is deafening.> Not quite Randy, Bob Kunnath is still “dashing like lightening” to silence free speech. Gerry Woodward wrote: <Your words, "This calls everything the Kenyans have done from Yobes Ondieki's 26:58 onward..." If that is not a scathing indictment of all Kenyan runners, then I've never seen an indictment, and I'm not a Kenyan.> Gerry, if you didn’t deliberately cut off the last part of my statement which read that it calls into question, then you would realize I didn’t indict all Kenyans. As a thinking person with analytical mind, I cannot ignore data. The data is that drug testing is deeply flawed, there is corruption in our sport, despite the huge holes in drug testing several African distance runners have been caught, the biggest Kenyan agent was banned from pro cycling for providing drugs to athletes, the performances don’t make sense (I laughed while you guys cheered Boulami’s WR), Kenyan runners are now saying drug use among Kenyans is widespread, etc. Sorry, but I cannot ignore the preponderance of this data. Gerry also wrote: <It is innuendos that always cause problems and tear our sport apart. T&F does not need a bunch of garbage being strewn about just prior to the World Cup to further tarnish the sport's reputation.> Gerry, Drugs have already torn Pro track apart. Fans have abandoned our sport in droves, you just haven’t noticed. We are ranked about the 40th most popular sport, well below monster trucks. Pro track is like the common drug addict and the solution is the same. The first step is admitting we have a big problem. Until we do that, the decline will continue. Based on many of the responses to the African Standard article, we can’t even discuss it, let alone admit there is a huge problem. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
