Dwain chaimbers

[Saint_Jonny]

Gotta feel happy for the guy, even if you doubt his past, just made the world athletics final, looks absolutely made up Good luck for the final! In about 2 hours I think, BBC2.

 

**Chambers** (spelled wrong in the title...)

[Um Bongo]

He did well. Will be good to watch while eating dinner.

 

Bolt breezed through, in 9.89 or something silly, easy.

[Saint_Jonny]

Yea saw that, Bolt is untouchable. Chambers should be made up with around 5th / 6th I think, so much talent in the final.

[Smirking_Saint]

He is a cheat

[Saint_Jonny]

Well done, very clever.

[Colinjb]

He is a cheat

 

What concerns me is whether the drugs he took had any long term benefits on his overall potential.

[Thedelldays]

What concerns me is whether the drugs he took had any long term benefits on his overall potential.

he is probably the cleanest guy out there at the mo..

[Um Bongo]

Boom. 9.59 and a new world record. Didn't even have a great start.

 

Simply outstanding.

[TopGun]

Boom. 9.59 and a new world record. Didn't even have a great start.

 

Simply outstanding.

 

About 4% quicker than Chambers. Which is as good as a mile!

[chrisobee]

Chambers was always a very talented athlete, such a shame he chose to succumb to drug taking. But it's as near as can ever be certain he is drug free now and 10.00 was always in his range so hard to understand that he resorted to taking drugs but even people who commit far worse crimes get a 2nd chance so good luck to him. Easily the best European sprinter but the Caribbean and USA athletes are a class above.

[chrisobee]

What concerns me is whether the drugs he took had any long term benefits on his overall potential.

 

No, if anything it just damaged his potential long term. Any benefits from drug taking are long gone and he misses most of the big meetings as he does not get invited so it's actually harder for him to compete consistently at world level. He did remarkably well to get to the final so I'd rather praise him for that than dwell on his past.

[chrisobee]

Yea saw that, Bolt is untouchable. Chambers should be made up with around 5th / 6th I think, so much talent in the final.

 

Good prediction !

[hamster]

I am no fan of cheating but who decides on what is legal and illegal in sport and what do they base their decisions on?

[jawillwill]

I am no fan of cheating but who decides on what is legal and illegal in sport and what do they base their decisions on?

 

Probably the same people who decided you're not allowed to compete on a motorbike.

[chrisobee]

In Athletics the IAAF are the governing body. Clearly they have certain criteria for cheating and penalties. Clearly the major issue is drug cheating and it would be good if every country was made to follow the same guidelines for out of season testing etc;. However, it is fair to say drug testing is more stringent in some countries than others. In the UK the rules are pretty strict as evidenced by the 2 year ban for Christine Ohorogou for missing 3 drug tests. In addition the British Olympic Association deny any one caught taking drugs the opportunity to compete in any future Olympics so Dwain Chambers will never compete in the Olympics again though this is not applied in other countries. The Jamaicans have been criticised in the past for being too lax on drug testing though fair to say they have tightened their testing system.

I do believe that overall the drug testing procedures are much stricter now than in the past though that's not surprising when high profile athletes are caught, eg Ben Johnson, Dwain Chambers, Linford Christie. However, drug cheats are still out there. I'm not sure what event it was yesterday, one of the woman's long distance events I think. The silver medallist from last year's Olympics has now been promoted to the gold medal spot after the winner failed a drugs test. The sad thing is that though she'll now receive the gold medal she deserves she was denied the chance to receive it at the Olympics themselves.

[chrisobee]

Probably the same people who decided you're not allowed to compete on a motorbike.

 

I think you can compete on a motorbike in say Speedway TBH !

[hamster]

Probably the same people who decided you're not allowed to compete on a motorbike.

 

I do not own a motorbike jw, I used to, but I don't anymore. I also have no interest in running fast myself, I sometimes enjoy watching otters run though. hth

[hamster]

In Athletics the IAAF are the governing body. Clearly they have certain criteria for cheating and penalties. Clearly the major issue is drug cheating and it would be good if every country was made to follow the same guidelines for out of season testing etc;. However, it is fair to say drug testing is more stringent in some countries than others. In the UK the rules are pretty strict as evidenced by the 2 year ban for Christine Ohorogou for missing 3 drug tests. In addition the British Olympic Association deny any one caught taking drugs the opportunity to compete in any future Olympics so Dwain Chambers will never compete in the Olympics again though this is not applied in other countries. The Jamaicans have been criticised in the past for being too lax on drug testing though fair to say they have tightened their testing system.

I do believe that overall the drug testing procedures are much stricter now than in the past though that's not surprising when high profile athletes are caught, eg Ben Johnson, Dwain Chambers, Linford Christie. However, drug cheats are still out there. I'm not sure what event it was yesterday, one of the woman's long distance events I think. The silver medallist from last year's Olympics has now been promoted to the gold medal spot after the winner failed a drugs test. The sad thing is that though she'll now receive the gold medal she deserves she was denied the chance to receive it at the Olympics themselves.

 

 

What i was trying to say chris, is that there are drugs out there that enhance 'performance' they are not the sort of substance found in your everyday diet, so why are they allowed? Is it a bit like the government allowing people to smoke and taking the tax money, and them 'banning' (for arguments sake) cannabis?

[chrisobee]

A large part of the problem is that the use of banned substances is huge and many are either found in natural form and/or may be prescribed for medical conditions such as asthma. Linford Christie is an interesting athlete to look at. In Seoul in 1988 he was found to have excess levels of pseudoephedrine which can be found in many over the counter substances such as antihistamines and even in combination with Paracetemol and Ibuprofen. Christie escaped a ban/disqualification as he was given the "benefit of the doubt" by a panel but only by 1 vote. Interestingly though he was tested positive during the 200 metres and not the 100 metres in which he won silver after Ben Johnson was disqualified. It later emerged also that Carl Lewis failed a drugs test in the USA as did many American athletes in the build up to Seoul but the Americans chose not to disclose the results. It was revealed that Lewis tested positive three times before the 1988 Olympics for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine, banned stimulants and bronchiodilators also found in cold medication, and had been banned from the Seoul Olympics and from competition for six months. The USOC accepted his claim of inadvertent use and overturned the decision. Fellow Santa Monica Track Club teammates Joe DeLoach and Floyd Heard were also found to have the same banned stimulants in their systems, and were cleared to compete for the same reason

Christie was banned in 1999 though by this time he had all but retired for testing positive for nandralone. This substance is also found in some supplements and even avocados! UK Athletics actually cleared him but it was the IAAF who gave him a 2 year ban. Personally I felt at the time it was pointless him taking drugs to cheat as since I mentioned he had pretty much retired though of course it's often the case that people will form their opinions based on what they feel about a person.

I'm not sure what substances you particularlty have in mind though caffeine is an obvious one as I believe it is now allowed in competition whereas I'm pretty sure that it was previously on the banned list. Apart from the obvious ones such as steroids and ampthetamines there are a whole host of banned substances. The use of drugs to enhance performance is considered unethical by most international sports organizations and especially the International Olympic Committee, although ethicists have argued that it is little different from the use of new materials in the construction of suits and sporting equipment, which similarly aid performance and can give competitors advantage over others. The reasons for the ban are mainly the alleged health threat of performance-enhancing drugs, the equality of opportunity for athletes and the supposedly exemplary effect of "clean" ("doping-free") sports in the public.

So it is clearly a very complex area and I doubt it will ever be possible to absolutely be sure every athlete is clean though many are caught. I mentioned that the Olympic champions in the 10,000 metres for women was later disqualified, just watching now and 2 medal winners in the 2008 Olympics men's hammer throwing were also disqualified so on the one hand you have what might be termed a positive in that most drugs cheats are caught, the negative of course is that people become disillusioned with not knowing if a great performance is aided by drug cheating. However, I think most people who follow athletics would accept Usain Bolt ( and indeed Jessica Ennis) are clean athletes and historically most of the great athletes aside from those who did test positive at some stage were playing "by the rules" though when you discover an athlete of the calibre of Carl Lewis arguably should never have even taken part in the 1988 Olympics even that perception can be clouded somewhat.

[hypochondriac]

Never understood why Chambers felt the need to take drugs. He does strike me as a little bit dumb though.

[chrisobee]

Never understood why Chambers felt the need to take drugs. He does strike me as a little bit dumb though.

 

Agreed, he had great natural ability anyway. Sub 10.00 was always within his range even without drugs.

[hamster]

Chris, in laymans terms, what could a person 'take' legally (by IAAF rules) that would enhance their performance? Say for instance, I was going to enter the London Marathon next year, what could I take to build up my stamina, strength, and lessen the aches and pains in my joints (and would it surprise most people to know) within the rules?

 

i am only curious and I promise that i am NOT plaaning to run a marathon.

 

Didn't know that about Lewis before, thanks for the insight and very interesting what you say about people's views being influenced by their emotive connections to said individual, very interesting indeed.

[Robsk II]

Pasta.

[chrisobee]

Chris, in laymans terms, what could a person 'take' legally (by IAAF rules) that would enhance their performance? Say for instance, I was going to enter the London Marathon next year, what could I take to build up my stamina, strength, and lessen the aches and pains in my joints (and would it surprise most people to know) within the rules?

 

i am only curious and I promise that i am NOT plaaning to run a marathon.

 

Didn't know that about Lewis before, thanks for the insight and very interesting what you say about people's views being influenced by their emotive connections to said individual, very interesting indeed.

 

In truth at the level we would compete then unless you really were stupid enough to risk your health then nothing would make any significant difference I'd suggest. By that I mean you would need to take a banned substance to have any chance of a significant gain and even then it is not certain Of course at the very highest level and particularly in sprints medals are determined by hundreths of a second so I guess that in many ways explains the temptation to cheat.

From a personal perspective I really don't think you can achieve anything unless you put in the training but also a great support group and a good coach in particular clearly helps a lot. I have run a couple of marathons way back in the 80's, both were in Southampton. My own training was purely self motivated and planned though it is fair to say I did have a good knowledge of training for sports, in particular football and to some extent Athletics. I was lucky that when I ran my PB of 3 hrs 15 for the marathon in 1982 everything pretty much went to plan, I avoided injury despite running 70-80 miles a week in training as well as gaining a great deal of fitness by doing something I loved which was dancing and it was the Ska era and fair to say I used to sweat buckets on the dance floor !!

Then the morning of the race, I think it was early May, the weather was perfect. I ran totally to my own plan and it was over 2 laps around Shirley, Lordswood, The Town Centre and finishing on the Common. I ran pretty much equal times for both laps and felt great the whole way and probably could have gone around again !

I ran again the following year but did have a few illneses as opposed to injury which meant my training was far less and I struggled round in about 3 hours 45 minutes. Strange in many ways I should ever run a a marathon as at school I only ever did the 100 and 200 yards as it was then !

So for me anyway it's about self motivation and that is something which really impressed me with Jessica Ennis where she was motivated to the point of running eyeballs out in the 800 metres rather than running a la Daley Thompson and using it as a few extra victory laps. Then to still find a bit more in the home straight to win the race showed for me that she was not just content to win but to win by as far as she could, that is a great trait for any athlete.

By the way I hate pasta Robsk !

[Robsk II]

I used to have to eat pasta breakfasts and lunches sometimes. ****ing carb loading

[saintwarwick]

In Athletics the IAAF are the governing body. Clearly they have certain criteria for cheating and penalties. Clearly the major issue is drug cheating and it would be good if every country was made to follow the same guidelines for out of season testing etc;. However, it is fair to say drug testing is more stringent in some countries than others. In the UK the rules are pretty strict as evidenced by the 2 year ban for Christine Ohorogou for missing 3 drug tests. In addition the British Olympic Association deny any one caught taking drugs the opportunity to compete in any future Olympics so Dwain Chambers will never compete in the Olympics again though this is not applied in other countries. The Jamaicans have been criticised in the past for being too lax on drug testing though fair to say they have tightened their testing system.

I do believe that overall the drug testing procedures are much stricter now than in the past though that's not surprising when high profile athletes are caught, eg Ben Johnson, Dwain Chambers, Linford Christie. However, drug cheats are still out there. I'm not sure what event it was yesterday, one of the woman's long distance events I think. The silver medallist from last year's Olympics has now been promoted to the gold medal spot after the winner failed a drugs test. The sad thing is that though she'll now receive the gold medal she deserves she was denied the chance to receive it at the Olympics themselves.

 

It was a year's ban not two,

[OLYMPIC]

I remember reading an article on Carl Lewis about how he failed the drugs test leading upto the Olympics but got it over turned,which over the years made all his preaching about drugs cheats getting banned for life etc a bit two faced.

Also another article i found interesting was how Ben Johnson openly admitted to taking steroids building upto the Olympics to aid is training,but still claims that his coach and him had timed it perfect that he was completely clean at the event and his sample was tampered with.Although when you watch the footage of the race i suspect he was still on something,just look at his eyes.