The Latest on Your Favourite Stars

By Eric.

You want to know what the stars are up to, so sit back this week-end, catch up on the latest news about the movers and shakers in the athletics world, and check back for the New Year's special on Monday night.

The latest on many of your favourite athletes in the sport of track and field:

• Abebe Dinkesa ran what was described as "a mind-boggling" 41.45 11,5km race on 29-November to win the $50,000 first prize money and also set a new course record in the 4th Obudu International Mountain Race - a steep and hilly course which has never yielded a defending male champion in the meet's history.



• Alan Webb, the American-record holder in the mile who failed to advance past the US Olympic Trials in the 1.500m, was signing red t-shirts and providing his support on 27-December at the Friends of Indoor Track Invitational at Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, MD, where nearly 1,300 supporters signed a petition to be forwarded to members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to save indoor track from the chopping blocks for local high school students. At issue is whether or not indoor track is necessary as Fairfax County Public Schools faces a $170 million shortfall in its 2010 budget, though track costs only $50/student according to Dan Woolley, FIT president.



• Allyson Felix has been quiet this off-season, with planned time-off giving her much-needed rest from the Olympic preparations she and Bob Kersee put in last year. Felix, who travelled to Jamaica on holiday during the off-season, hosted her family for Christmas last week. Felix, the defending 200m world champion, is in a long-repetition training phase she gears up for the 2009 World Championships.



• Andréas Thorkildsen, the two-time Olympic javelin champion, was awarded the gold medal for the ‘Performance of the Year' by Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten at a ceremony organised by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture in November. The sports Journalist Association of Norway also presented a statuette to Thorkildsen for becoming the Performer of the Year in Norwegian sport.



• Andrew Hinds, heir apparent to Obadele Thompson: "My plan for next year is to make an impact at the World Championships and I am looking forward to the European circuit, but my goal next year is to break the sub-ten barrier. I think I have got in me to run 9.9.
  
  "I am doing some serious hard training right now. My work-outs are now more intense as the aim is to get stronger. I am doing more weight-training and will be better prepared .
  
  "I would like to clock under ten seconds before the World Championships and hopefully repeat it in Germany," said Hinds, who is back home on vacation.



• Anna Chicherova was spotted with other high-profile athletes and dignitaries at a Real Madrid match on 18-December, but not the famed Spanish team of the football variety. Russian basketball team CSKA were playing the Spanish basketball team in Moscow in an epic showdown which Real Madrid won in front of the Russian hosts in stunning play. Chicherova is confirmed for competitions to be held in two Czech cities, Trinec (21 Jan) and Hustopece on (24 Jan) in what is known as the Moravia High Jump Tour.



• Asafa Powell, the greatest Grand Prix sprinter to never win an individual global title, has not yet responded to Michael Johnson's public statements and assertions that Powell does not know how to handle his nerves and focus - two keys to Powell's inability to win the big ones (World Championships and Olympics). Johnson, who believes he can help Powell, has stated that the biggest mistake an athlete can make is deluding him/herself into thinking that there is no pressure. Dwain Chambers backs Powell to win a medal before the end of his career.
  
  Glen Mills, the coach of Jamaica’s triple Olympic champion and sprint double world record holder Usain Bolt, is also hopeful that Asafa Powell can shake off his major championships disappointments and win some accolades before his career is over, but warned that with Bolt around, Powell's time is running short.



• Augustine Choge will kick-start his cross country campaign on 10-January at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country meeting in Scotland. Choge, who finished 12th at last year's World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, has not raced since finishing 10th in the 1.500m final in Beijing.



• Berhane Adere, who faltered in the Beijing Olympic marathon, is scheduled to defend her Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon title next month, one year after setting a course record (2.22.42) and collecting $250,000 in the process. Adere, who is in a class by herself, should only face challenges from Bezenushe Bekele and Askale Tafa Magarsa.



• Bernard Lagat will attempt to tie the Wanamaker Mile win-record of seven owned by legendary Irish great Eamonn Coghlan when he competes 30-January at the 102nd Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Lagat will then turn his focus to Europe, where he will be targeting his fourth win at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on 21-February, where he will run the 1.500m.



• Bershawn Jackson has spent part of his off-season visiting children and providing advice to work hard, stay in school and never lose sight of their dreams - words of wisdom he provided kids at Hillcrest Elementary School in Somerset. "You have to face adversity and overcome it," he told the students. "Champions don't give up, and I consider myself a champion. I made history because I worked hard and I trained hard."



• Blanka Vlasic is rested and ready for the 2009 season following a disappointing Olympic silver medal and her second-consecutive Golden League season jackpot miss. Vlasic will have another shot at the $1M jackpot as the IAAF announced the women's high jump will be part of the 2009 campaign. Vlasic was recognised last week in Zagreb with a Croatian Olympic Committee award, a distinction she was not expecting, but one upon which she promised to deliver in the future. Vlasic will have an opportunity to jump against Ariane Friedrich at the BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe on 16-February and avenge for the one loss the German had against Vlasic in 2008, causing her to lose her share ($500.000) of the Golden League Jackpot.



• Carolina Klüft travelled to Addidas Ababa Ethiopia late last month to be part of the Great Ethiopian Run - a race which UNICEF is a partner to help raise awareness and funds to fight HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Klüft, a UNICEF ambassador, lended her support to the fundraising project, one which helps orphans and vulnerable children through the "Dream Campaign" by raising about $11.000 for four charity homes. Klüft was there on a similar visit in the winter of 2006. Trackside, Klüft, who followed her one-week visit to Ethiopia with a training camp in Potchestrom, has again opted to skip the heptathlon, which means that the 2009 IAAF World Championships - as were the Beijing Olympics - will be contested without the second-best ever in the event. Klüft will tackle the long jump event, one which she sees as a challenge.
  
  Svenska Dagbladet stated on 27-December that Klüft was the smartest and bravest athlete in Sweden in 2008. Moreover, Klüft was picked by the Swedish public as being the number one favourite athlete in 2008 ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
  
  Said Klüft:
  
  I think I would have answered both "Sanna" and "Zlatan". Peter Forsborg seems to also be very sympathetic. But it isn't easy, and one is influenced, naturally, if one has a personal relationship with other athletes. Anja Pärson is also an athlete whom I like, and I met the handball girls during the Olympics in Beijing. There are so many great athletes with different conditions, that it is difficult to compare.



• Chris Brown, after finishing in the unbearable fourth place position at the last three major championships, is hoping for some good fortunes at next year’s IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany. He is taking things a day at a time in search for an elusive medal and a podium spot.
  
  "My main goal is to make the podium in Berlin at the World Championships," Brown said. "Already on three occasions I have had the bronze taken from me.
  
  "I guess the Lord has something bigger in store for me so I am taking it one day at a time," he added.



• Christian Malcolm was denied a true opportunity to earn a medal in the 200m according to Linford Christie, Malcolm's coach who is banned from any Olympic team contact for a positive drugs test late in his career. Christie claimed last week that UK Athletics and the BOA didn’t give Malcolm the chance to prepare as best as he possibly could. Nevertheless, UK Athletics paid Christie to coach the world and Olympic finalist in the run-up to Beijing despite the fact that Christie was prevented from accompanying the Olympic squad to either the athletes' holding camp in Macau or the Games themselves.



• Christine Ohuruogu's stock continues to rise, with Lord Sebastian Coe this week naming Ohuruogu, the Olympic 400m champion and defending IAAF world champion, his sporting hero of 2008. On a side note, Ohuruogu recently donated a pair of her trainers to an art work which will be a representation of the shoes which people who perished at Nazi concentration camps were made to remove before they died.



• Doping: ProCon.org, a nonpartisan 501c3 nonprofit research organization, created a new website, http://sports.procon.org, to explore the question "Should performance enhancing drugs (such as steroids) be accepted in sports?"
  
  The online project contains nearly 30 questions about drugs in sports with over 250 sourced responses from more than 200 sports experts. Those experts include professional athletes (from Lance Armstrong to Gene Upshaw), doping authorities (from Dr. Don Catlin to Dr. Gary Wadler), sports writers, academics, physicians, league commissioners, politicians, and many other knowledgeable sports fans.
  
  Some subjects of discussion include whether or not:
  
  * Tiger Woods' alleged LASIK surgery to improve his vision to 20/15 is ethically different than an athlete taking a banned substance
  
  * there is a correlation between the 5% (approximate) of middle schoolers who take anabolic steroids and the use of such substances by their athlete role models
  
  * the testing labs, such as the one that found cyclist Floyd Landis guilty of using banned drugs, are credible and reliable
  
  * the teammates of sprinter Marion Jones should return their Olympic gold medals. None of them tested positive for banned drugs although Jones confessed to having used them.



• Dorcus Inzikuru, the former world steeplechase champion, refused to testify last week in a personal assault case where she was a principle witness and plaintiff against her husband and brother-in-law. Both defendants were attributed to have stated two days before their arrests that they would kill Inzikuru, with Inzikuru's husband charged with physically assaulting and harming her. The case was dismissed.



• Jenn Stuczynski, the Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault, has become a Christmas ornament - a silver bulb in her local area with a picture of Stuczynski participating in the pole vault. The decorative pieces sold out before Christmas, and more were on the way.
  
  On the track, Stuczynski was yesterday confirmed for participation in the upcoming Millrose Games.



• Jeremy Wariner is training and looking ahead to London 2012 according to today's Star-Telegram. "It’s a good way for me to relieve a lot of stress," he says about running. "When I’m on the track, I forget about everything else that’s going on. So it’s a good place for me to get away from things and just be me and enjoy myself."



• Johan Wissman is currently training 11 times a week in order to gain more strength needed to reach the goals he has for the 400m. Wissman is scheduled to contest the GE Galan here in Stockholm 18-February - the second-best indoor meet in the world (Stuttgart). Wissman returned to Helsingborg yesterday following three weeks of winter training at his "home away from home" in Stellenbosch, South Africa.



• Kara Goucher will visit the City of Duluth (MN) Wellness Committee program on Tuesday, 30-December, to honour city exercisers. Goucher, home in Minnesota for the holiday season, is preparing for the Boston Marathon following a successful debut in New York.



• Kelly Sotherton is currently training to take part in all three of the major UK Athletics indoor events in 2009, starting with the Aviva International Match at Glasgow on 31-January. Sotherton will then compete at the Aviva European Trials on 14-15 February in Sheffield, before taking on Olympic Champion Natalia Dobrynska in Birmingham in the 60m hurdles, long jump and 400m.



• Kim Collins is preparing for the upcoming Aviva Internternational Match in Scotland, where the ex-world 100m champion will contest the 60m and 200m events at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall on 31-January.



• Kim Gevaert, though now retired from athletics, was recently named along with Justine Henin as goodwill ambassadors for the Belgium and Netherlands bid to co-host the 2018 World Cup.



• Lisa Dobriskey trained twice on Christmas Day - a Thursday - as she always does, and is more than determined to make up for the bitter disappointment she felt when she placed out of medal contention in Beijing. Despite heading into the Olympics full of optimism, Dobriskey finished fourth in the Beijing 1.500m final.



• Liu Xiang's recovery from achiles surgery is going well, as he has now been able to walk without crutches - though he is still required to wear a special shoe. He'll be able to walk in the pool in two weeks according to his coach, Sun Haiping, accompanying Liu during his U.S. rehabilitation. Yao Ming has requested Liu receive space and time to heal.



• Lolo Jones was named Visa Humanitarian Athlete of the Year earlier this month for her help in assisting flood victims in her home state of Iowa.



• Nick Willis will compete in a Wellington (NZ) street race on 10-March before competing in a mile race at an international track and field competition three days later in Christchurch.



• Richard Thompson, the Beijing silver medallist (9,89) in the 100m behind Usain Bolt's world-record (9,69), earned $750,000 cash and $250,000 in units from Unit Trust Corporation in Trinidad last week as a reward for his accomplishments in the 100m and 4x100m relay, which set a national record (38,06). Thompson, the NCAA indoor 60m champion and outdoor 100m winner, resumed training 3-November, and stated to Trinidad's Newsday that the 4x100m relay team will race together several times next season.



• Stefan Holm has ended his career in grand fashion - at least nationally. Holm, the fourth-place finisher at the Beijing Olympics, was last week selected Sweden's best track and field athlete for the first time in his career.



• Steph Twell, the three-time European Junior Cross Country champion, will be racing in the Antrim International Cross Country - the third meeting in this winter’s UK Cross Challenge series - on 3-January.



• Susanna Kallur, who finished second in balloting to Stefan Holm for Sweden's best track and field athlete, has split with coach Karin Torneklint. Torneklint, who coached Sanna and her sister, Jenny from 14-15 years old and joined forces again with them in 2004, left the training solely to Torbjörn Eriksson, who had different training philosophies than did Torneklint.



• Usain Bolt is in almost every news story of note at the moment as the doors prepare to close on 2008 and the year which produced a record season which likely will never be repeated. Bolt took delivery of a BMW M3 (reported here earlier this week) just before Christmas, and was recently selected Track & Field News Athlete of the Year.



• Victor Conte is in the news this week because he stated he supplied "the cream" and "the clear" to somebody, somewhere... one has lost count to the claims Conte has made.

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones (Part 2)

Story by Eric.

(This is the second installment in a long series on Marion Jones, titled: "Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones").

A bulletin board post on the Oprah Winfrey Show following Marion Jones’s first post-prison interview stated:

“The root of penitentiary is penitence. You are supposed to use the time to reflect on how you arrived there and develop a plan of action ro [sic] return to integrity. Lie to the world but never lie to yourself. If you want to regain your self-respect, you have to become more self-reflective.”

Marion Jones’s surrender to Federal prison – she’d inherited inmate number 84868-054 – had been unlike any previous experience she has ever had, to say the least. She had four hours of daily free time, work detail, mandatory reporting for lockdown and lights out at 23.00. She’d been required to work as she is “medically able”, and she had had access to the TV room, library and recreation facilities.

The crash-course into prison had been quite unassuming and par for the criminal course – one Marion Jones began charging toward after intentionally disregarding the honoured value of truth when she lied to Federal agents acting in full capacity as extensions of the government which sent them on a search for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in two matters concerning lawless acts of deception and fraud.

First and foremost in matters concerning the penal system, Marion Jones was not released from her sentence early for good behaviour, and thankfully for justice’s sake, she didn’t have to stand before a parole board under the guise of reform pleading for early release. Marion Jones will be required to serve the entire sentence in accordance with the United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines enacted in 1987. Good behaviour time reductions occur at a rate of 54 days for every 12 months served after the first 366 days.

The day that Marion Jones surrendered to Federal custody on her own accord (self-surrender) – 2008-March-7, she drove up to the receiving gate of the prison complex – which is where she was also discharged upon completion of her six-month term – and picked up the phone to reveal her identity and alert the authorities that she was there to self-surrender. She then headed inside of the facility for processing, which involved filling out several administrative forms, being fingerprinted, photographed, and visually searched for contraband and/or any other prohibited materials; officers conduct routine searches of her living quarters. She received a prisoner badge to wear on her person at all times.

Marion Jones was then issued clothes to wear inside of her dormitory and was provided sheets, a blanket and a pillow rolled up to take to her four-women living quarter.

She was then interviewed by medical staff that Friday to check on her physical and mental conditions, and to ascertain if there were any medications she would have needed whilst under their care – items previously prescribed by her physician. Unfortunately, there was no check for a mental state characterized by pathological lying. From that time forward, she had life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness quite arrested until such time that she was released to the probation officer responsible for her lawful behaviour on the outside of the prison walls.

Now that Marion Jones’s has been released from prison and has headed into a two-year probation phase – she’d been transferred from Fort Worth to CCM San Antonio, a lower-level jail in San Antonio, Texas on 2008-August-23, and released at 08.00 on Friday, 2008-September-5, inmates left behind to serve their own time may recall the days, hours, weeks and months they shared time and space with a famous athlete who was once able to travel the world, wear expensive Nike shoes and appear in catchy commercials. They’ll tell stories to new interns about how the Marion Jones they saw was an ordinary person who got mixed up with bad men who took advantage of her, others will say Marion Jones pretty much kept to herself and was rather invisible.

Some will tell stories of how she had family visitors every Saturday and Sunday, but never had her kids - they were in Barbados, sent away to Obadele Thompson's relatives prior to Marion Jones ending up in prison.

Finally, some will undoubtedly say of Marion Jones, “she was one of us.”

Or, then, again, maybe “one of us” may take on a completely different meaning than can be issued here.

Montgomery, also a convicted criminal, stated that he had gone from world’s fastest man to a criminal sitting next to murderers and paedophiles in a place where his previous status played no part in how he was treated inside the jail.

Nevertheless, Marion Jones was also one of the elite athletes in the world, too, but stung track and field considerably with her deception. Renaldo Nehemiah, the former 110m hurdles world record-holder, appreciated Marion Jones’s candour in stating she had lied to investigators and misled her fans, but stated that her confession didn’t take away the sting of her actions.

“She was one of us”, Nehemiah would state following Marion Jones’s sentencing date with respect to her membership in the world’s elite.

Marion Jones has now been part of a lot of fraternities over the past decade now that she has endured her short prison sentence: the marriage club, the superstar athlete social society, the Olympics club, the liars club, cheaters anonymous and the Federal convict fellowship. And, she will have shared most of it with Montgomery, the father of her first child.

And so the fable/myth/story of Marion Jones’s sudden rise to the top and her marathon-long flight to the bottom begins – or ends...it depends solely on your vantage point, and how late you joined the game. If you happened to miss a step as you’ve traveled down this slippery slope of Marion Jones’s career, roll your clock back five years to 2003.

Five years ago, Marion Jones was adjoined at the hip with BALCO Laboratories, and was rocked through a challenging period which exposed her as a possible drugs cheater who had been accused of having been involved in the schemes implemented by a devious man and his ambitious cohorts operating a performance-enhancing drugs company in Burlingame, CA, USA.

Trevor Graham, who turned in the syringe which exposed BALCO, was also thrust into the limelight, though, according to him, as the good guy doing the right thing in the affair. The courts eventually agreed with him to a certain extent.

Marion Jones, covering up her tracks through one of the longest periods of deception known to the sport, stood up in a court of law to which she had been summoned later that year, raised her hand and swore to tell the entirety of the truth – nothing but the truth – so help her God. She then attempted to walk away from the chambers as cleanly as she entered – with dust under her feet, but with a spotless character and perfect drug-testing record still intact.

Trevor Graham, her first coach as a professional athlete, also swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth – so help him God, when he was interviewed later by IRS agents sniffing out a trail of indiscretion and deceit leading Graham’s direction.

Marion Jones walked straight through the doorway from the court, into the hallway leading back to her future, and she proceeded down an elevator from the 17th floor of the 81-metre high-rise Federal Courthouse in the SOMA district of San Francisco, CA, to a place where she could run as quickly away from the lie she had moments before told before authorities.

She’d pulled one over on the Grand Jury, but she knew it could only be a matter of time before her deception would be unearthed. It took an unrelated charge – one of lying to Federal authorities in the Montgomery case – to find a few gold nuggets in the BALCO case; the authorities were able to have her confess to a period of time in which she had cheated, but did not capture the entire story as it related to her entire career.

Marion Jones couldn’t run far enough or fast enough – she was a sprinter, and by nature, didn’t possess the endurance for the marathon event which the BALCO investigation became, to outrun her own shadow, though it lay four years behind in time. The long arm of the law caught up with her and snatched her from her spot under a rock, and ultimately put her in a very hard place paid for by other people’s money – a common theme you’ll come to realize as you make your way through this blog series.

Marion Jones was not charged in Federal court that day in November 2003 with committing a crime – having stated under oath before that Grand Jury hearing her testimony that she had never taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Many of her supporters and folks with general athletics knowledge, when they learned of Marion Jones’s having been called to testify in the case, believed that she was a credible woman who simply had made erroneous decisions with men in her life and wrote off the allegations – desiring no less than the finger-pointing sans real evidence to cease and desist with immediate effect, and for Marion Jones to continue on in the sport as she saw fit.

Then Marion Jones was again pegged as a drug user in 2006 when, following a leaked EPO test result which was collected through a urine specimen at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she was determined to have failed the initial “A”-sample test. She provided excuse matter which the world at large bought with a steep price, and Marion Jones believed she would escape further scrutiny as she quietly walked away from a tumultuous season – never to return to the sport.

She would be granted no such reprieve, however, as she would have to face yet another test – one with enduring, painful and immediate consequences – in having cited to the world that she was a crook, a thief and a mockery to the sport which had so dearly adopted her, the “golden girl” – but to a degree lesser than the actual crimes she committed.

And she’d be proven to have taken EPO on earlier occasion, despite her excuse of being “shocked” at never having heard of the drug prior to being accused of having it in her system in 2006; her coach, Trevor Graham, had previously dispensed it to another of his prodigy athletes. Such a mockery had she been to the spirit of fair competition that she would also be banned two years from the sport despite “retiring”. Adding further fuel to the fire surrounding her offenses, Marion Jones may also be banned from attending any Olympic Games in an official capacity for the rest of her life – including banishment as a coach, an athlete or even a media representative, for example.

The year 2008 was an Olympic year, and Marion Jones spent her late summer days under the eye of a U.S. government as a parolee whilst making monthly calendar visits to a probation officer once she was released from Federal on 2008-September-5. The events would be sad had it not been for Marion Jones’s bullying and utter contempt for telling the truth.

The sole basis of this blog series has been written to inform you of falsifications Marion Jones has stated in her attempts to justify, validate and substantiate her hidden connections to performance-enhancing drugs, and to depict for you sequences of events in Marion Jones’s life and Trevor Graham’s existence which have obscured views into drugs-taking – up to, and including – Marion Jones’s timely admission of drugs-taking on the 5th day of October, 2007 and Graham’s trial in May.

The fifth day of October, 2007 was a Friday morning, ladies and gentlemen – a day which finally set in motion wheels of justice to methodically walk – not race – a straight line to the finish line of this marathon chase for freedom on a different long Friday, the 11th day of January, 2008. It also granted Marion Jones an opportunity she finally took as a last-ditch effort to experience a personal freeing liberty, which, now having been exercised, was meant to lift and transform the burden of suspicion she was facing throughout her past into an admittance and closure – one which was to now allow her to move forward away from this sport into a future of her so choosing – save the probation offices’ dictation.

That idea, however noble, was a fleeting one, as Marion Jones’s confession did not contain any substance of great importance, and, rather than liberating her, it made her even more captive to the lies she had so dearly held on to.

In the words of USADA’s Travis Tygart, “The outcome of this story is a valuable reminder that true athletic accomplishment is not obtained through cheating and any medal acquired through doping is only fool's gold.”[1]

Your participation in reading this blog series will at times be likened to being called for jury service, with your specific duty to take into account the actions and words Marion Jones, the defendant, has demonstrated throughout what will be a very long case about abuse of power, theft of identity, and fleecing of a public.

It is part of the beauty of the inherent gifts we have as human beings to think critically and logically, and to apply knowledge to what which we hear and read which is meant to govern our thoughts and enforce certain actions based thereon. The judge in the real case of The United States of America vs. Marion Jones did exercise his gift to think logically and critically in weighing the actions Marion Jones committed against the requests for leniency she later made of him, and sentenced her to prison for misleading and misguiding the government in their attempts to foil crimes where they had been committed.

You, being of sound mind and possessing the capacity to exercise excellent reasoning capabilities – knowing how to distinguish what is good for you – heed then, therefore, to these very words written in this blog series, and guard them with deep commitment to preserve truth. I admonish you to never at any time during the course of this series raise your hands above your ears – as to cover them – no matter how loud the noise level begins to rise in here.

Every word spoken by Marion Jones contains a level of depth that can be understood by children, and her screaming and lying will at times remind you just how childish and selfish Marion Jones has at times really been – despite her new husband’s revelation of her seriousness and passion of being a kind, gentle, giving mother.

Marion Jones has stated on two separate occasions that she would like the events in her life to be a catalyst of sorts, so teach your children the importance of history, and keep them away from repeating the events forthcoming in this story – for the equal and just reward of such behaviour is a scorn and peril too much to bear on one’s own shoulders – despite how wide, how broad, and how strong those axels may be. Even if your name is Marion Jones, and you pretend it makes little difference.

Marion Jones, in the end, could not bear the weight, and needed her second husband’s shoulders to cry on, and he, having cried at her sentencing, had no one to support his broken spirits.

Finally, make yourself a life-long commitment to never, ever as a fan of sport re-live through the following events again, opting next time to keep a cautious optimism alive while taking time to read the writings on the wall – even if they are scribbled in crayon.

---

1 Reuters, “Marion Jones Banned Two Years,” 2007-10-08

A "German" Invasion Worth It's Place in History

Story written by Eric.

Achtung! Achtung! A skinny soldier-of-one has been on the loose, and no one has been capable of finding the "off" switch to keep the 17-year-old kid from Riverbank, CA from marching forward and destroying everything in site through the Great War of 2008 - also known as one of the best prep athletics seasons on record in the United States of America.

He's been armed with two spiked shoes, a white uniform and a desire to be all he can be, and he has pushed, pulled, strained and leaned his way into the promised land one kampf at a time. His has not been a personal engagement to take over the top - at least not any of the 50 states which make up his country, but to fire the traditional limits people have placed on running fast times and excellent races.

That he'd be on the top when all was said and done - when the great "German" invasion had finally reached its climax, was going to be a given. The question was how much real estate would he conquer, and how many roads along the prep record books would lead through Riverbank, and not Rome, so-to-speak.

He was brought up in the wake of "AJ's Nation", but failed this past winter to deliver the national title the state of California and the Footlocker West Region expected of him following his victories over iconic names like Marc Davis and Jeff Nelson; the precocious prep was not merely battling his contemporary state rivals, he was left chasing the footprints left long ago by national champion and national-record holding legends on the fields as well as around oval tracks.

He promised to take no prisoners as he stormed through the national prep scene during the final year he would spend discovering what the essence of becoming a man was all about, but was left in want in San Diego last December.

Following a record run (14.24) at the California state meet (in which he shoved Davis out of the record books following a 21-year footprint left on the highest peaks of Woodward Park's course - I race I witnessed after having competed in a junior division) and a victory the following week in the West Regional (14.53), the regionally-tested solidier could not muster enough energy to stampede past the gates his toughest opposition were guarding.

He returned home an All-American, but not the best American on that given day.

He couldn't break down the barriers in the United States when the winter months had drawn near, so he expanded his battle ground further, to a point on another continent - Europe - and attempted to find solace in a country called Scotland.

There, running on the same grounds covered in another race by world-record holder Kenenisa Bekele, the young American, who doesn't know much about the history of his sport, would march a long way around an 8km course in search of the magic of perfection and winning whilst fighting against the best.

Winning, though he competed well and ran fast, would once again elude him as he found his finishing drive more than a minute short of his counterparts - this, despite having won the American battle against people of the same age group a few weeks before setting sail to Europe.

German Fernandez returned home to the United States following a 25th place effort at the IAAF World Junior Cross Country Championships in March and set off on a series of paces, times and efforts which, when compared to any American prep boy in the past 40 years, has never been rivaled.

Fernandez has made it straight past "go", and into the upper echelons of running where high school gods before him reside, and he're why:

He has fired "impossible" and hired a mindset of never giving - a strategy which has cost his closest rivals every good sense of pace and has also caused them to lose state and national titles.

Fernandez did so at the CA CIF State Meet three week-ends ago when, having run a 4.11 1.600m qualification race the previous evening, ran the best one-day prep distance double in USA history on Saturday, 2008-May-31. He reached the finish line first at Cerritos College in Norwalk, CA in the 1.600m in 4.00,29 - a state record, and returned two-and-a-half hours later to complete the eight-lap 3.200m race in a National Federation record time of 8 minutes 24,23 seconds.

No prep had ever run 3.200m in a high school-only race faster than 8.41,10 which Dathan Ritzenhein, who won not one, but two coveted national cross country titles which had eluded Fernandez, had accomplished in the spring of 2000. Fernandez found his revenge to a degree, but had accomplished his feat at the bastard distance of 3.200m - one which required a conversion to compare to Nelson's 2-mile high school record of 8.36,3.

He ran his 1.600m with such ease and an even pace that pundits from across the globe began wondering what he could have accomplished had he set out at a faster earlier tempo and didn't have the second race on schedule that evening.

What could he have run in the mile had he gone full-out? Could he have gone sub-4.00?

A moot point according to the Fernandez camp.

The question became one of if he could run under 8.36,3 for 2 miles - or run two 4.18 times without stopping - in a prep-only race. That was the answer for which they were searching.

They received their answer in grand fashion on Friday evening, 2008-June-20, when Fernandez, after running a 4.19,6 first mile at the Nike Outdoor Nationals - 1,3 seconds over pace, dug down and covered the next four laps in 4.14,8 - a spirited finish which gave Fernandez the new title of national champion, and, more importantly, entrance into the upper echelons where national record-holders like Jim Ryun and Gerry Lindgren also resided during their prep years.

And so "air-MAHN" Fernandez, as it is pronounced in his modest home in the Sac Joachin Valley of California - a place he's found quite restful after having moved more than 10 times before his parents settled down from Watsonville, has invaded the record books, leaving behind scattered names and debris in the CAL state 1.600m and 3.200m; a National Federation 3.200m record; and a 3.000m and 2-mile record to match his cross country state record.

His has been a long battle against injury and frustration, but the humble boy from a humble home has now catapulted himself up and over every single, solitary person who has ever contested a high school 2-mile, and he's now wisely called it a season.

Fernandez is headed to Oklahoma State University, where he will compete for the Cowboys.

Sooner or later, Fernandez will elevate his status among the collegiate men and again take no prisoners as he reaches for his next set of goals.

Right now, however, with his legs trained, tried and tired, it's time for the Applebee's employee to step away from the whirlwind which he created and move on to better days - if there is such a thing following this dream season.

Dave Kemp, Nelson's high-school coach, said none were comparable to Nelson.

"The guy was from another planet," Kemp said in an interview printed on 1990-August-11.

"He was a one-in-a-million kid. The first time I saw Jeff run, I couldn't believe someone could come out of the woodwork with that kind of talent."

It has taken 27 years to find that second talent among the millions who have competed year in and year out since Nelson graduated and attended the University of Oregon, though one hopes and trusts that the pitfalls which eventually broke the bank on Nelson's career do not crop up in the future Fernandez camp.

Fernandez has exemplified the traits which make a winner a champion - the two are not always synonymous. He has personified the very rare ability to stop, look and listen whilst moving as quickly as he can, one determined step at a time into a future in which only time will tell what it holds in store.

Before he is ushered off into the real world - where his steps around the track and over the cross country courses will help pay for his meals and books, here's hoping Fernandez enjoys a nice break from this chapter in his life, which, though it has been a surreal experience, can never be repeated.


Jeff Nelson's 1979 season at 2 miles:

• 8.55,0y Burbank Invitational
• 8.36,3y Pepsi
• 8.51,3y CIF the 3-A finals
• 8.49,1y CIF Masters
• 8.47,35y CA State

German Fernandez's season in 2008:

• 8.53,60m WAC/TVL Challenge
• 9.00,10m CA SJS D-3
• 8.45,08m CA SJS Masters
• 8.34,23m CA State
• 8.34,40y NON

C.F.P.I. Timing & Data - Contractor License
   Nike Outdoor Nationals - 6/19/2008 to 6/21/2008    
    North Carolina A+T University, Greensboro, NC     

Event 13  Boys 2 Mile Run
================================================================
Section 1 at 6:50pm; Section 2 at 8:00pm                  
National: $ 8:36.3h  5/6/1979    Jeff Nelson, Burbank, CA
   Meet: M 8:41.55  6/15/2007   Matt Centrowitz, Broadneck,
Freshman: F 9:04.4h  1973        Eric Hulst, Laguna Beach, C
Sophomore: O 8:50.6h  1974        Eric Hulst, Laguna Beach, C
 Junior: J 8:41.10  2000        Dathan Ritzenhein (m), Rock
 Senior: S 8:36.3h  5/6/1979    Jeff Nelson, Burbank, CA
 Freshm:   9:01.68  2005        Sintayehu Taye (m), Portlan
Name                    Year School                  Finals
================================================================
Finals                                                     
1 Fernandez, German         08 Riverbank, CA          8:34.40S
2 Puskedra, Luke            08 Ogden, UT              8:47.06O
3 Lowe, Colby               08 Southlake, TX          8:47.07O
4 Finnerty, Robert          08 Burnsville, MN         8:50.96F
5 Williams, Kevin           08 Lakewood, CO           8:51.30F
6 Darling, Maverick         08 Ovid, MI               8:57.80F
7 Aprill, Bobby             08 Dexter, MI             8:59.50F
8 Unterreiner, Miles        08 Gig Harbor, WA         9:02.48F
9 Kaulbach, Max             08 Philadelphia, PA       9:06.44
10 Keveren, Sean             08 Brentwood, TN          9:06.59
11 Medrano, Francisco        08 Lafayette, IN          9:06.75
12 Hill, Ryan                08 Hickory, NC            9:07.36
13 Haile, Solomon            09 Silver Spring, MD      9:07.66
14 Abdalla, Mohamed          08 San Jose, CA           9:08.61
15 Smith, Douglas            09 Succasunna, NJ         9:11.48
16 Bazell, Graham            09 Columbia, MD           9:13.06
17 Lovelace, Luke            08 Chapin, SC             9:18.61
18 Krause, Elliot            08 Appleton, WI           9:19.00
19 Springer, Andrew          09 Westerly, RI           9:21.13
20 Nicolls, Bobby            09 Parker, CO             9:23.42
21 Bodary, Chris             08 Downingtown, PA        9:23.45
22 O'Donnell, MacLean        08 Oak Ridge, TN          9:25.15
23 Udland, Tyler             10 Short Hills, NJ        9:25.80
24 Lachowitzer, Kevin        08 Perham, MN             9:26.62
25 Bosshard, Joe             08 Crested Butte, CO      9:36.33
26 Hernandez, Francis        10 Windham, NH            9:41.53
-- DelBene, Colby            08 Patterson, NY              DNF
-- Beabout, Ryan             08 Wheeling, WV               DNS
-- Sheinbaum, Julian         08 Scarsdale, NY              DNS 

Foto credit: Fresno Bee

Itching For An Athletics Career? Try London 2012

Story Written by Eric.

Do you finally have that spring itch tapping against the better of your senses right now as the depths of the winter have finally succumbed to longer daylight hours?

The signs aren't difficult to recognise because that unsettling feeling usually crops up around Christmas and makes you more and more restless after the Superbowl and March Madness pass on by.

That itchy feeling crawls up the walls of your personal satisfaction, and it typically appears at times when your peak interest in a particular sporting event has just expired.

When you're high on life and sports you're happier at work. When you're not "in season" you may find yourself simply going through the motions until something else rekindles that fire or provides you with that kick.

I think we all do it at some point during the year, with some of us having more noticeable "sessions" than others, depending on what part of the year our sport crowns its champions.

My particular ebb-and-flow line is perhaps more even than are others, as I have three peak seasons in the sport of athletics per calendar year, but I have a great career that gives me flexibility to wander into things imagined by some, but not really real.

The Athletics in the News subscriber base around the globe is growing per day, and folks' interests and opportunities to participate in the sport are as varied as are their locations.

Are you as a reader of this site an aspiring athlete who has a burning desire to make it big as a professional in your desired sport, but don't know yet if your dreams will materialise?

Perhaps you have been a great armchair fan who has thought about what "the life" would be like, but gave up the gossamer mind fiction for the 8-5 reality - or, worse, 11pm-7am.

Maybe there's a remote possibility that you've considered a career in athletics, but you've either not known where to look for such open positions or lacked the right connections and never gave it much thought.

Or, even better, perhaps some of you here are aspiring sports writers looking for that one break to make it into a consultative setting covering a live event for a professional team.

Do any of the above describe you with relation to your interest or passion for sport?

I am an HR Analyst who has worked for 14 years in the United States, the United Kingdom, and here in my home country, Sweden on various large-scale projects and made a volume's worth of hiring decisions over the years.

I've always had the desire to translate my work experience into the sport of athletics, but have never really had that opportunity until now. More on that later.

I've volunteered as an anti-doping officer in my sport of passion, track & field, but have never earned a salary in the industry in any way, shape, or form.

Anti-doping work is very challenging to find if you're unable to move to the governing body's headquarters—Monaco in my case. Those volunteer stages take place at either the World-, European-, or national-level championships.

I bumped into a particular sports recruiting site three years ago and decided to peruse the open jobs they had available. I wasn't looking to change careers, but rather stumbled upon a particular job board whilst doing HR recon for a client.

Nothing at that exact moment piqued my interest, but I did submit my e-mail address for NHL and NBA job alerts.

I'm pleased to state that I've not been bombarded back to yonder with irrelevant positions, but have actually gotten wind of quite a few entry level to executive positions which could have turned into great careers had I been willing and ready to make such a move.

You may be remarkably surprised if you've not previously taken a close look at career sites marketing sports-related positions.

If you've not previously given much thought to putting your time and energy where you can actually make money enjoying yourself, take time to look at a site like Monster or Teamwork Online and discover what actually does await you in the professional world of sports.

Would you like to be an sports analyst for an NHL team? A web developer for a professional basketball organisation? A Marketing Coordinator for an NFL team? Careers like these and others are out there for the taking, so to speak.

If you're reading this site with any regularity, you've passed the sniff test and have gained a great appreciation of this sport inside and out.

If you're feeling the need for change or are simply interested in knowing what else is out there besides the job you may currently be undertaking, do visit a sports-related recruiting site today. There are more than 800 positions advertised on one site at this very minute. The list continues growing (and shrinking) every day.

If you fancy the need for change and are up to the task of putting your skills where your passion is, try venturing down a path in a sports-related field. The rewards and benefits of doing exactly what you feel is your calling should far outweigh the trouble it may take to submit a CV.

You may not be playing golf with Tiger Woods, but you may find yourself rubbing elbows with him instead.

And, if that's not what fancies you - this is a sports site about track and field after all, here's a grand opportunity which you certainly must consider if you are looking to work on a large project, have an excellent reference on your CV and/or add an incredibly large client base to your business in the future.

Are you ready for the big secret?

London 2012 is its name.

Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, is quoted in today's Yorkshire Post (link) as stating:

"With over £6bn of contracts available, businesses need to act now to make the most of the opportunities available between now and 2012.

"Delivering the Games is a massive logistical operation, requiring goods and services from a large number of firms.

"Businesses the length and breadth of the country will win contracts and gain a huge amount of experience of what it takes to stage and host big sporting events."

If you're not likely located in England or planning on moving to the country in the next quarter or so, do consider making a unique business proposition to London 2012 to take advantage of the stream of opportunity available to businesses and their supporting Olympic ventures.

And, if you're simply interested in working on a London 2012 project, click here to learn more about the excellent positions they will have available throughout the phases of development up through the closing ceremonies.

A key example of the types of opportunities they have available is:

• Head of NOC and NPC Relations and Services: Opportunity for an individual to lead the team responsible for establishing the plans and managing NOC and NPC relations on key activities such as Pre-Games Training Camps, Olympic Village and Paralympic Village requirements, the Chef de Mission Programme and visits.

If you're a leader and love this sport, this could be a fit for you.

Athletics in the News is taking advantage of the open door by presenting a business opportunity to London 2012 which will keep fans entertained in the Olympics long after the closing hours.

I love this time of the year, because it's the upswing following traditionally long winter months, the sun begins to set later in the day, and athletes and fans begin making their ways to tracks and stadiums all around the globe in search for the right harmony between performance and entertainment.

This is an especially impressive time of the year, because the Olympic hand-off has now gotten underway between Athens and the new host city, Beijing. An Olympic spirit is in the air, semi-retired folks will make one last attempt to (re)gain glory once demonstrated but never really captured and others will dream of things which seem too good to be true.

That's why I encourage you to make a difference to yourself and search around for a fit which may suit your interests, passions and skill sets. Strange things happen in Olympic years, so why shouldn't a bit of magic happen for you?

About Track, News, Sharks and Things in Between

Story written by Eric.

When was the last time you made a re-discovery of something you knew was right under your nose, but had never really taken a peek to see it take off and flourish?

A recent jaunt over to Trackshark.com, a site created and run by Tom Borish - a man who sped to 21,29/47,22 sprint bests as a collegian, was more than a mild surprise to me during the NCAA Track and Field Indoor Championships.

I've always associated Trackshark as a specific niche market for collegians, so naturally I migrated there to search for information leading up to the two-day meet in Fayetteville.

What I got sucked into when I arrived was an entire new world of fandom which I had never before been part of in the several championship seasons I'd spent perusing other websites and bulletin boards.

The posters there were passionate. That's a great start when attempts to create synergy between what they have and what I had to bring. They were also possessed an incredible sense of knowledge and understanding, as the folks whom they were discussing were in fact their own peers.

Finally, one stark difference between my engagement with folks there and anywhere else on the internet is that looking in on the NCAA Indoor Championships felt like I had joined one huge, global party and everyone was celebrating great things happening in the sport.

Have you ever had one of those spectactor moments when the x's and o's were all perfectly aligned and information and results were published instantaneously through a live blog with scores of participants?

I experienced that at Trackshark thanks to a commitment Borish made to keep his faithful informed, involved and in complete touch with the throws, jumps, vaults and times young adults were achieving at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center.

Track & Field News, the "Bible of the Sport", had the only live journalist on-site providing up-to-date information via a blog which Dave Johnson was able to submit a total of 10 times each of the two days he was there.

The coverage was excellent. Splits, lanes, names and times were all accounted for from one event to the next, and the results were put up timely.

Track & Field News prided itself on being the only source actually on site watching the events unfold, and certainly they had every right to feel proud of that fact.

However, insofar as the NCAA permitted the events to be broadcast live through a link on the host university's sports site, anyone and everyone watching from around the world - including yours truly at god-awful times of the night - had an opportunity to update anyone else caught outside of the meet and away from a clear video stream.

Trackshark and Track & Field News, two successful and incredibly strong sites rich with information, commentary and expertise, provided an incredibly wealthy experience for any fan who happened to switch between the sites in search of the latest on Bianca Knight, Leonel Manzano, Scott Sellers or anyone else wearing university colours and ready to put their best foot forward on the national stage.

Track & Field News had an entire message board dedicated to meet.

Each event contested - heats and finals - had its own thread, and each thread was updated immediately after the main moderator there received the results from Johnson.

Their pre-meet form charts provided fans an opportunity to learn who was picked to finish in which spots, and the information proved to be useful where I lacked certain thoroughness on given athletes.

Garry Hill, the print magasine's Editor and a Chief Officer, was able to successfully flip-flop between heats and finals and keep fans updated on the turn of events by appropriately labelling thread titles and providing concluded events with a designated symbol easy to identify them as being such.

The service was greatly appreciated, and the fans on the site were also a top-notch, highly knowledgeable group who stated afterward that they appreciated the efforts and long hours put in by Hill, Johnson and any associates who were helping to bring the meet "live" through written words.

Trackshark also had one page which it dedicated to the meet, but went a step ahead of Track & Field News by having the story of the meet unfold in a live blog which posters took advantage of participating in once Borish let loose when the meet got underway.

Track & Field News migrated its board into the Current Events forum, and, unfortunately, I believe they lost out in being able to continually tell a story as it happened from the first event to the last.

One can search on the forum for keywords or take the time to attempt to look for the symbols used to signify finals had been contested, but the entire NCAA event seems to have disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

Trackshark's NCAA page is still active, though it takes two efforts to get to it.

Nevertheless, Borish's two blogs serve the public well insofar as one gets a feel of the meet through his own description of the events, and one captures the mood and feel of the atmosphere by reading comments others were making as the events were underway.

I spoke at the beginning of today's entry of being more than surprised at Trackshark when I payed them a visit about 10 days ago for the first time in perhaps two years. I've been there in the past to peruse week-end results and to search for photos following big meets, but hadn't taken a look at their message board after having been loyal to mainly one on the internet the past four years.

If you're a fan of the sport, and have a moment or two available to read about the collegiate scene, do take a gander over to the forums and lurk for a while; you don't have to jump straight in and put in your two cents, but you can find some very interesting and fascinating gems written by athletes and fans alike.

A place like Track & Field News can benefit from having more senior athletes take time to contribute a few topics of interest to the message boards, as it would help their subscribers and board contributors feel an even closer one-ness with the folks whom they discuss but rarely meet.

Allen Johnson made a few comments on a thread written about him before jetting off to Valencia to eventually win a silver medal in the 60m hurdles at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, and Brandon Couts has been another US star who has frequented the message boards.

I'm sure more would come if word got out that folks really wanted to hear what they had to say - something they begin doing as high schoolers at Dyestat, and continue to do as collegians at Trackshark.

USA-based Dyestat, a site which has a majority handle on the high school scene, has a strong mix of contributions from stars-on-the-rise as it does from fans who enjoy watching them compete.

Mixing stars together with their fans on an anonymous message board can lend great support to the sport, as fans can gain a deeper, more satisfying understanding of the people who are competing on their television sets and at stadiums near them between January and September year-in and year-out.

Mixing together people's experience gained from participating in an event and keeping it in one spot to live on past its shelf-life also has its benefits.

Perhaps sites can learn a valuable lesson from one another's strengths and apply that to their own the next time a championship comes around.

In the meantime, I'll continue enjoying all I can from any place where discussion is good, people feel like home and everything track, some things field and a little of mustard in between is what's on tap for the evening.


Trackshark's two-day blog was a great asset to the NCAA championship experience. The blog, put together and moderated by Tom Borish, was a timely and lively event-by-event coverage piece which allowed fans from around the world to chip in during the height of the meet and discuss ups-and-downs with others in a live environment.