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Post by sprint logic on Jul 24, 2009 5:46:49 GMT -8
www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090724/lead/lead1.htmlHeard that a couple of athletes returned positive tests, now the number is up to 5. Waiting with baited breath to see who they are. Jamaica was allowed to go without having their testing body in place last year, and they declined joining the Regional body. One would have to think that having a "pass" that something like this was bound to happen. JADCO is up now, but as indicated in the article they still do not have a qualified testing lab in Jamaica. These tests came out of a lab in Montreal. Which begs the question that when the IAAF said that they did some tests in Jamaica last year, just where did they send the samples and what were the results. At any rate, not the best news coming on the heels of last year's performances in Beijing. Who actually tested positive will say a lot.
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Post by zoser on Jul 24, 2009 8:09:42 GMT -8
We all wait with baited breath. The news is that no one big is in the pool. It is one woman from the 100 who finished in the top 6, 2 men who finished in the top 6, and 2 men from the 400. So far. Some Caribbean blind followers are spinning the stimulant angle but until we know who, and what it is all still a mystery.
I do not care about the JADCO issue. All I care about is that the sport handles itself better. The only lesson from this is that Herb Elliot is an idiot for ever saying Jamaicans would not cheat because they know better. It was naive, arrogant, and suspicious. I am pissed about this entire episode as it will do nothing more than add to the lore of drug use in the sport and draw the lines in the sand al over again
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Post by sprint logic on Jul 24, 2009 8:52:43 GMT -8
Issues on several levels.
II do care about the JADCO issue because it (IAAF, JAAA, others) allowed this to happen by NOT having the proper system in place.
Herb Elliott is not the only person saying that cheating could not occur in Jamaica. We've heard many tout, the water, the yellow yams, and other silly excuses for extraordinary performances in lieu of Jamaican's being able to or capable of cheating. They are human too!
If there were 5 that tested positive with the weak testing system in place, then it begs the question how many were not caught (especially since we KNOW that undetectables are out there)! Which highlights the need to move to a more reliable system - something I've cried about for years!
Finally it shows that we are no further along in cleaning up doping in this sport than we were at the start of the BALCO situation!
And there is NOTHING to be happy about. Be it American, Jamaican, Brit or Russian any time doping comes out it is BAD for the sport!
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Post by canmak60 on Jul 25, 2009 8:45:51 GMT -8
I totally agree. There needs to a better system of testing in Jamaica. There needs to be transparency.
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Post by balance on Jul 26, 2009 22:35:20 GMT -8
Transparency and equity. All should be treated the same but that doesn't seem to be the case.
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Post by zoser on Jul 27, 2009 7:41:40 GMT -8
I think it is amusing to watch the Jamaicans dance around and use all the reasons that US athletes have used over the years. Now they are reasons, rather than the excuses they were labeled in the past. Now we are hearing about minor stimulants, and how it is not the big stuff, yet in the past we heard about masking agents and how this leads to bigger institutionalized doping. Yet, we are now supposed to accept it all as individual occurrences that have no bearing on anything else.
Now I think everything is to be judged as it is at the time, all situations are not the same.
What I dislike the most is that Victor Conte is being made to look like the honest man in the room, and it is becoming irritating. He has become the expert on the subject like the forgery crook from "Catch me if you can" This is getting ridiculous now. Someone gets busted for salbutamol and we are treated to a Conte article. Stop the madness.
Meanwhile, I want the Jamaicans to be honest and step up. Their testing is behind, it is not independent, and the IAAF is running the show. Herb Elliot is the IAAF spokesperson, and we deserve a better mousetrap. Not because someone is cheating but because we are working hard worldwide to make the sport better. Having the sprint power behind in their testing protocols, and procedures is beneath us. Don Caitlin has started his own lab here in the States. We have the independent part down. Use it!
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Post by kermit on Jul 27, 2009 12:31:59 GMT -8
Unfortunately all the suspicions must be the fault of the Jamaican government and not the JAAA. Between 2006 and 2008 the bill to allow funding for drug testing was constantly blocked by their parliament. The outcome of this was that the JAAA had to go cap in hand to the IAAF to ask them to put in place a drug testing procedure. Which is why most of the sprinters were heavily drug tested last year with the majority of those being blood tests.
Parliament finally gave the go ahead just before the Olympics and to the credit of the JAAA they have successfully weeded out (pardon the pun) some low level cheats. I say low level cheats because that is the findings of the IAAF, which implies that it was marijuana that was found to be the drug found in these five athletes.
What I was far more disappointed with was the attitude of the BBC who spent the first day of the London GP chasing Jamaican athletes and asking them live on air their views about the 5 people who had failed tests.
They took great pride in breaking the news to athletes as soon as they crossed the finish line. And furthermore they were determined to find out the names of those who had failed the tests even though they new that their names would not be released until after the "B" samples were checked.
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Post by kermit on Jul 28, 2009 6:27:46 GMT -8
Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson, Sherry-Ann Brooks, Allodin Fothergill and Lansford Spence
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Post by sprint logic on Jul 29, 2009 21:34:28 GMT -8
Well I have a few issues with the testing procedure, results, et al.
First of all, the drug in question we know to be a stimulant. That is the one thing that has been constant so far. Which rules out marijuana, since that is a depressant. So whether it be Methylxanthine as reported or turns out to be something else, it should be a stimulant. And stimulants have always been a part of the best drug cocktails.
I understand that there was some difficulty in getting funding from the government for the program in Jamaica. But so did the IAAF and WADA. And instead of waiting until the last moment, something should have been done proactively long before that point.
Knowing that there were difficulties a contingency should have been set in place at the first sign that an agency may not have been in place. THAT should have been done by WADA or the IAAF. And the FIRST contingency should have been mandatory participation in the Regional Agency - period. To say that the IAAF had to go in and test is BS because there was a viable alternative readily available.
As for the testing of the IAAF, I have to say that that was simply a show for the benefit of the general public. In order for Blood Testing to be effective, one needs to set up a Base Passport to gauge any future tests against. The reason for this being to detect changes in the base system. Otherwise it is no different than Urinalysis - it simply picks up what we already have an ID for. The advantage of Blood Testing is supposed to be the ability to pick up "undetectables" by detecting changes within the indivdual profile and then looking for "explanations" for the changes. It is that search that picks up the "undetectable.
With the IAAF going in during the peak season, there were no changes to monitor. If one had doped already THAT became part of the base profile. A Blood Testing program isn't something that you do by simply going in and drawing blood. There is a protocol that needs to be followed, monitored, and maintained.
So saying that Blood was taken and nothing was found is a rather large misnomer. They couldn't find anything because they had no base to compare against!
As for the BBC, not to offend anyone, but the Brits have a rather holier than thou attitude when it comes to this sport. That's why they've had so much difficulty with Dwain Chambers. So I'm sure they reveled with delight at the prospect that they might be able to break a doping story.
I guess I shouldn't post at night. Way too blunt this time of day.
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Post by zoser on Aug 1, 2009 18:02:32 GMT -8
I am not put off by the BBC, the only difference to me remains the nationality of the athletes. The WORLD has been doing it to the US contingent for years, and I am happy to see the same done to others finally, because lord knows the world ignores the eastern europeans and there parade of positives yearly.
As for the JADCO not receiving the funding, I look at the IAAF and WADA. They fought long and hard to get many US sports to sign off on the code, including the illustrious MLB. Yet they are selling us the story that it was all the governments deal? WADA has been to Capitol Hill in the States and had their agenda championed by a few senators, there is a problem in this scenario for me. And it has less to do with Jamaica and the domestic issues there, but a lot to do with our international overseer. There is clearly an agenda and there is also a corollary to why we do not have more money in the sport and no substantial US presence.
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Post by sprint logic on Aug 2, 2009 6:35:01 GMT -8
Exactly .. Like I said, WADA and the IAAF could have had something set up before the situation got to where it was .. And yes that includes lobbying the Jamaican government to ensure that proper procedures were set up for them ..
they already knew that they had individuals that would be top competitors .. Powell, Bolt, Campbell, Frater, Walker they already had athletes in place that would be contenders .. So they knew that proper testing should have been in place .. Its not like the whole thing snuck up on them ..
They allowed to happen what happened - period .. JADCO should have been in place .. If not Jamaica should have been forced to join the Regional agency .. The Jamaican government should have been lobbied .. Funding should have been secured - even if it had to be done via another source like a shoe company or other source ..
Things could have been done and should have been done ... They simply weren't .. And there is really no excuse ..
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Post by zoser on Aug 9, 2009 15:57:26 GMT -8
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