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Author Topic: Sleazy side of sprinting  (Read 1712 times)

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Offline Storeboy

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Sleazy side of sprinting
« on: May 19, 2008, 08:54:52 PM »
Sleazy side of sprinting
Fazeer Mohammed

Monday, May 19th 2008

   
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161325076




Ato Boldon can't be trusted...and thank goodness for that.

Being described as untrustworthy is normally deeply insulting, but when you're dealing with people who have a morality of their own, it's actually quite complimentary, as this country's most consistently successful athlete ever has been finding out recently.

And with a couple of influential cheats in the shady underworld of performance-enhanced athletics expected to be whistling like contented picoplats from today, maintaining a comfortable distance from those already tainted by the broadening brush of drug cheats is obviously the way to go, especially as they'll be trying to take as many with them on the way down.

Depending on your perspective, the next few days could be either disturbingly dark or reassuringly illuminating as the trial of disgraced track coach Trevor Graham resumes in the United States today with Guillermo Angel Heredia, a former Mexican discus thrower and key supplier of banned substances to a number of high-profile athletes, scheduled to testify and essentially make factual what many have suspected all along.

There are genuine fears that the impact of the testimony emanating from the courtroom in San Francisco, especially in an Olympic year, could do irreparable harm to the already tainted integrity of the sport and generate the sort of scandal that has seriously compromised the prestige and international prominence of cycling's premier road racing event, the Tour de France.

But there are others, like Boldon, who have consistently maintained, even in the midst of what seemed a witch-hunt style persecution of Marion Jones, that the relentless pursuit, exposure and prosecution of the cheaters is actually a reaffirmation of his own belief that the sport that has earned him international acclaim and a jet-set livelihood is truly determined to rid itself of those bent on reaching their goals by any means necessary.

In achieving everything else but an Olympic gold medal, the American-based Trinidadian has grown accustomed to the constant criticism from many of his compatriots that he spent too much time talking and not enough time focussing on the finer points of sprinting so that he could have that extra edge when it really mattered. Well, it now seems that tendency to run his mouth at the slightest prompting meant he could not be trusted to cheat and keep quiet about it.

Speaking in an interview with reporter David Walsh that appeared in the Sunday Times of London eight days ago, Heredia described how he provided drugs for sprinters Maurice Greene and Larry Wade-both teammates with Boldon at the HSI Track Club-following a meeting with HSI coach John Smith, Greene and Wade in Houston, Texas, in 2002:

"I found John Smith very professional. He knew what was going on and wanted me to work with the two athletes from his group that HE MOST TRUSTED (my emphasis). After winning in Sydney, Maurice had slipped a bit. Tim Montgomery was the new kid on the block. Maurice wanted to run fast, make a medal at the Athens Games and hold on to his adidas contract."

Of course, most would be aware that Boldon took the silver medal behind training partner Greene in the 100 metres at the 2000 Olympics, holding on desperately for a bronze in the 200 a few days later as well in an event won sensationally by Konstantinos Kenteris, the Greek sprinter who missed the Athens Games four years later in the midst of mystery, controversy and scandal over his failure (together with Ekaterini Thanou, who finished behind Jones in the women's 100 final in Sydney) to comply with a mandatory test on the eve of the 2004 Games.

In Walsh's excellent investigative piece, Heredia goes on to explain how he worked with Greene in 2003 and 2004. But while the specifics are depressingly revealing, more enlightening is the hypocrisy of what Boldon obviously believed was a "blood brothers" type of relationship with his training partner and coach.

Remember how local conspiracy theorists, tired of seeing our boy finish behind the American at the really big events, surmised that there was no way that Smith would allow a foreigner to get the better of a fellow countryman, and that it would have been better for Boldon to train somewhere else, where he wouldn't have to endure the psychological handicap of not being the biggest horse in the stable?

Well, it seems they were partly right because Smith trusted Greene and Wade to cheat and shut up but didn't have the same relationship with Boldon.

Whether it was as a result of wanting the Americans to have an unfair advantage, or a fear that the motor-mouth Trini would have done better than his personal best of 9.86 seconds in running to the authorities to tell all, we can only surmise.

What doesn't need any guessing, however, is the negative publicity that will be surrounding track and field athletics this week with the Beijing Olympics less than three months away. Boldon is convinced that the sport will emerge stronger after all of this.

I'm not so sure, for there will always be those motivated by greed or glory, or both, to do whatever it takes to get ahead. That philosophy is not limited to athletics, or sport in general, but when a culture of dishonesty prevails in such a high-profile sphere of activity, you fear that attention will always be focused on the race to catch successive waves and generations of cheaters who all have a morality of their own.

fazeer2001@hotmail.com
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Offline Bakes

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Re: Sleazy side of sprinting
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2008, 01:33:47 AM »
Hardly a complimentary take on Ato's having avoided the doping maelstrom.

Offline A.B.

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Re: Sleazy side of sprinting
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2008, 12:28:31 PM »
I thought it was just me thought so.

As though well it wasn't a conscious decision, it was 'cuz Ato couldnt be trusted to keep it quiet why the drugs weren't given to him.

Is ok, I going back home June 1 to have some legal discussions and other in-person altercations.
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truetrini

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Re: Sleazy side of sprinting
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2008, 07:21:54 PM »
Well Ato, I found the article to be ok.

What he said is that you were not trusted to keep quiet about the cheating.

Quote
But there are others, like Boldon, who have consistently maintained, even in the midst of what seemed a witch-hunt style persecution of Marion Jones, that the relentless pursuit, exposure and prosecution of the cheaters is actually a reaffirmation of his own belief that the sport that has earned him international acclaim and a jet-set livelihood is truly determined to rid itself of those bent on reaching their goals by any means necessary.
[/b]

So all in all, Fazeer eh bat yuh, I found it to be enlightening and flattering really.

Offline dinho

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Re: Sleazy side of sprinting
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2008, 08:23:23 PM »
Quote
In achieving everything else but an Olympic gold medal, the American-based Trinidadian has grown accustomed to the constant criticism from many of his compatriots that he spent too much time talking and not enough time focussing on the finer points of sprinting so that he could have that extra edge when it really mattered. Well, it now seems that tendency to run his mouth at the slightest prompting meant he could not be trusted to cheat and keep quiet about it.


not sure how fazeer concludes here that Ato's propensity to 'run he mouth' contributed to him being left out of the John Smith circle of trust..

all ah dem used to run dey mouth too damn much.

i  thought that a more reasonable conclusion would be that Ato was left out because maybe they knew of his strong character and integrity and that the whole drugs scene wouldn't swing with him.

Fazeer sounding like he trying to take ah cheap shot.
         

Offline weary1969

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Re: Sleazy side of sprinting
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2008, 09:20:40 PM »
Fazeer= idiot
Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

 

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