Athletics
Moderators: Admin, Ralph, asl, Robin
-
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
- Posts: 29796
- Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
Good to see testing getting better. After tennis, athletics is the mainstream sport where it's most easy to evade light touch and infrequent testing.
Athletics? Really? I...no... really ???RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:After tennis, athletics is the mainstream sport where it's most easy to evade light touch and infrequent testing.
Funny how many get caught from out-of-competition testing. Plus all finalists in every single meet are tested in-competition. Light touch??
Murray and Nadal have both recently said there needs to be more testing in tennis, that's true. But athletics....? They have to tell the IAAF their whereabouts throughout the year and, if the testers turn up where you said you'd be and you're not, three times in a season, you get a mandatory ban. Light touch?? Wtf??
-
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
- Posts: 29796
- Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
Three times a year? Even I with no knowledge could figure out how to time it right so I came out clean.
Women's 800m (or 1500m) said it all - lisa dobriskey in her post race trackside interview said 5th was good as she was the highest clean runner but she just wishes the races were a level playing field. The winner has since been caught again but beat the testers prior to the olympics. Cycling obviously has an awful history but the technology and amount of testing is now at the forefront, though other sports are learning.
Women's 800m (or 1500m) said it all - lisa dobriskey in her post race trackside interview said 5th was good as she was the highest clean runner but she just wishes the races were a level playing field. The winner has since been caught again but beat the testers prior to the olympics. Cycling obviously has an awful history but the technology and amount of testing is now at the forefront, though other sports are learning.
I said if the testers turn up and the athlete isn't there, three times in a season, they get banned - I didn't say they only get tested three times. All finalists at all meets are tested, even if they finish last. Athletes who improve 'too much' get extra-special attention. There is an issue in that there's such a backlog of samples awaiting testing, people get caught several months after the event. The high-profile nature of athletics and cycling make the focus high. Yes, cheats are good at cheating and will always try to be one step ahead of the testers - but to describe it as a 'light-touch' policy is to be extremely disingenuous to the testers.