Susanna Kallur Nabs 18-Year-Old World Indoor 60m Hurdles Record

Story written by Eric

Sweden's Susanna Kallur had dashed around Europe flirting with record performances over the past two weeks, and had tasted history eight days ago when she came within three one-hundreds of a second from tying an aged record set in a very conspicuous time frame within the sport.

The faster she sprinted over hurdles from a standing start to a finish 60 metres down a synthetic track, the more unavoidable the question became.

Each obligatory post-race interview was a potential nirvana for journalists attempting to draw forth an answer to an obvious question Susanna didn't want to consider, and instead, Susanna would carry on calmly talking about mechanics of her race which needed adjusting...how her start needed improvement.

She appeared dazed, perhaps confused they thought. Perhaps she needed some time to collect herself, for surely she'd want to talk about how much she was demolishing her competitors and getting closer to knocking off a Russian-who-became-a-Swede from history's record books.

Susanna had time to collect herself during practice sessions following her short travels around England, Sweden and Germany where she'd gone through the same motions of packing down her equipment, flying to her destination, checking into her hotel, rising early to eat, relaxing before the storm she'd later create, packing everything back down and finally checking out of her hotel.

Meet after meet -- at Norwich Union, Samsung Galan and Sparkassan -- the pool of journalists waiting in the mixed zone for an interview with Kallur would grow exponentially.

"Sanna", as she is known here in Sweden, just couldn't get her hands around why she was in such high demand. It was only 60 metres of hurdling, she thought. She knew she was quite quick, but there was always an area to improve on. The "perfect" race, she thought, may possibly bring her closer to an 18-year-old world record, but it wasn't something she got caught up in.

The real deal, she'd state, was outdoors in the fresh air where grit, gumption, determination and power all wrapped up into controlled energy would be tested over a full flight of hurdles 100m from the starting line.

But this was indoors, she was running fast, and first things were first.

Though she'll tell you otherwise, Sanna Kallur is used to being in the spotlight. She was nearly awarded Sweden's sportsperson of the year award for the second consecutive year last month, losing out to footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic. She knows pressure and has a great resolve when it comes to warding off unwanted thoughts and wasting both time and energy wondering about things which had not yet happened.

The world record would come if it was so destined, she'd reason.

Sanna wanted to live in the "now", not the future. The scribes writing for their daily newspapers and weekly magasines didn't get the message, however, and the questions would get more direct and less comfortable for Sanna before and after each subsequent competition.

Susanna was sitting on a gold mine, and they knew it. She pretended as well as she could that she didn't notice how incredibly close she was to making her little country of 9 million proud by becoming the second athlete in three years to set a world indoor record. Kajsa Bergqvist, who retired last month, set the world indoor high jump record of 2,08 metres in Arnstadt, Germany on February 4, 2006.

There is something magical about Germany, and Sanna got a good taste of that when she stopped the timing device 7,72 seconds after it fired in Stuttgart.

There was no denying her place in history following that race, as she elevated her status and position in the sport to the second-highest place on the all-time list -- 0,03 seconds behind Russian Lyudmila Narozhilenko's 7,69 clocking in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 1990, and one hundredth of a second ahead of Narozhilenko's Swedish record time of 7,73 set when she became a Swede and had changed her name to Lyudmila Engquist.

Susanna Kallur, daughter of an NHL hockey star with four Stanley Cups to his name, was setting herself up to make history, even if she felt the time wasn't yet right to touch a record all the greats in the 18 years preceding her had been unable to tie or surpass. The outdoor record-holder couldn't touch the mark.

The American record-holder, who was known for her foot speed, couldn't, either.

Engquist's mark was becoming a permanent fixture in the books, but not one which her adopted country wanted to see remain as word of her post-career drugs-testing failure turned the love-love relationship with her into one which pushed her far from the country with thoughts of committing suicide for letting it down.

Then Sanna headed back to Germany earlier this week to withdraw against her recent deposit into her training bank, and make an effort to run fast on a good surface. World record thoughts were still outside of her realm of thinking, she'd state, and she was simply there in Karlsruhe to have fun and run her best.

This time when journalists -- still armed with cameras and notepads -- were to pop up to ask about her training, she'd grant one of them an opportunity to film her practice indoors on Wednesday in a break from Sanna's normal routine. Perhaps she sensed the inevitable was in the air, and she simply wanted to show the world that she was as average and normal as the next athlete.

Nevertheless, Susanna Kallur, twin sister to Jenny Kallur, lined up to race late this afternoon at the BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe in a heat to determine which athletes would compose the final field at the end of the meet.

She remained set in her blocks when the gun sounded, and eased into the final with the fastest time of the day, 7,78 seconds after the gun sounded.

Chatter had filled the stadium earlier in the day as talk about a world-record attempt had permeated throughout the media out to the public, with the journalists doing most of the talking as Sanna had left it up to them to make prognostications about speed, charts and climbs up all-time lists.

She did later admit that the record had begun itching between the ears, so-to-speak, but she'd not dwell on it; she didn't want to chase times and marks, as doing so had previously caused her to get nervous and the goals to remain elusive.

By the time the eight women-strong final would take place, at 16.42 Central European Time, nearly every resident in Sweden had their televisions tuned to Eurosport or had their radios turned on to a newscast either waiting to watch history unfold literally in the blink of an eye, or to be interrupted from milking cows and shoveling snow if only for a minute to let out a loud "yes!"

American Lolo Jones broke the 19-year-old meet record with a 7,87 run in the first heat. Sanna, blocking out the distractions and focussed on her own plan, erupted for a 7,78 in the following heat.

An entire stadium erupted in cheer when the gun sounded. Sanna Kallur had a decent reaction to the gun and started off quickly toward the first hurdle. She flew over all of the barriers between the start and the finish tape, and, with her lean at the finish, flew through a barrier which had stood since Sanna was but seven years old.

The clock stopped at 7,68 seconds -- a time 1/100th of a second faster than the previous world-record, and the first time Sanna had broken the 7,80-second barrier.

Sanna stared at the clock a moment, not knowing if the time would be adjusted up or down, as often occurs when the official time is given.

When the official time was announced, Sanna Kallur, who turns 27 in five days, realised she had broken the world record, and was immediately congratulated by Damu Cherry, an athlete who had been previously banned for two years for steroids abuse. Sanna didn't appear enthused to embrace the controversial hurdler, but shook her hand, nonetheless.

Then she took her laps of honour in front of a class of people who had assembled for the possibility that they again would witness history on German soil.

Jones placed second in 7,77 seconds, the 10th-fastest ever recorded. So loaded was the field that six of the seven finishers set new personal bests in the race.

That Sanna would catch and pass a ghost of the sport's past in her fourth meet of the season was not remotely in her thoughts before the race began, and her reaction to her time and place in history says it all.

"This is absolutely unbelievable," reports the IAAF. "I can’t put my feelings into words. In comparison with my race last week in Stuttgart, today was much better."

Engquist would later send her congratulations to Sanna through a message she sent to Sportbladet, the sports division at tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet. Sanna also spoke with Jenny Kallur and received an SMS congratulation from Christian Olsson, who has the world indoor triple jump record.

Said Engquist through tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet:

Sanna! An emornously big congratulations for a fantastic and well-deserved record. I wish now that you will be injury-free, for then you will win the Olympics.

Congratulations from my heart! Ludmila.

The 26-year-old had endured a winter's worth of grueling practices in her pursuit of bettering her starts, her technique and her overall strength.

Sanna's race was the third time this indoor season that she has set a new personal best at this race distance. She concedes that she is strong at this distance, but the 100m hurdles -- the official Olympic distance -- is where the American hurdlers seem to excel, a fact which doesn't necessarily put her in the driver's seat heading to Beijing in August.

"There are some Americans who have better 100 metres hurdles times than I do. You certainly must consider them ahead of me," she said.

The Olympic Games are still six months down the road, and Sanna Kallur has much remaining on her plate this indoor season, with a date in Birmingham planned for Saturday.

"I like Birmingham", Sanna told Aftonbladet reporters. "They have good coffee there."

Indeed they do. Perhaps that was Sanna's best effort at staving off further talks about records and medals.

The Swedish national championships are being held in two weeks in Malmö, and the IAAF World Indoor Championships will take place next month in Valencia. Sanna's world record run tonight, though a phenomenal time, was far from perfect, and she realises there are areas yet to improve.

Time will tell how much more she can improve this indoor season, though her trainer, Karin Torneklint, believes Sanna can run much, much faster both indoors and outdoors in 2008.

The journalists, who flocked to Arlanda Airport in Stockholm when Sanna landed on Monday, believe she can, too.

Sanna's hopes of escaping further question-and-answers sessions disappeared with her entry into the world record books, and it appears as though this has only been the calm before the great storm which occurs once every fourth year, namely the Olympic Games.

Kallur, who has had a winter of injury-free training with her twin sister, Jenny, holds a 12,49 second 100m hurdles best outdoors - a mark she also achieved with her successes in Germany last season in Berlin.

The Swedish national record is held by Engquist, who twice ran 12,47.

Kallur was injured for three months leading up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and did not make it past the semi-finals.

She also hopes to improve on her fourth-place finish from last season's IAAF World Outdoor Championships 100m hurdles final - a race she was winning until American Michelle Perry, the eventual winner, interfered with Kallur over the final hurdle and impeded Kallur's finishing drive.

Perry is skipping the 2008 indoor season in favour warm-weather training in Australia's summer season.

The Kallur twins are no strangers to handling success. Their father Anders Kallur, the four-time Stanley Cup winner with the New York Islanders, is their manager.

Jenny Kallur, who was born four minutes before Sanna, is skipping the 2008 indoor season.

International Indoor Meeting, Karlsruhe

Women's 60m Hurdle Results:

1 KALLUR, SUSANNA SWE WR 7,68 (reaction: 0,162)
2 JONES, Lolo USA PB 7.77 (0,155)
3 CHERRY, Damu USA PB 7,89 (0,166)
4 WELLS, Kellie USA =PB 8,00 (0,163)
5 BOBKOVA, Miriam SVK PB 8,04 (0,138)
6 TRYWIANSKA, Aurelia POL SB 8,08 (0,181)
7 VUKICEVIC, Christina NOR PB 8,10 (0,157)
- TEJEDA, Anay CUB DNF (0,164)

Five-fastest indoor 60m hurdle races all-time:

7,68, Susanna Kallur, SWE, Karlsruhe, 2008-02-10
7,69, L. Engquist, RUS, Chelyabinsk, 1990-02-04
7,73, Cornelila Oschkenat, EG, Wien, 1989-02-25
7,74, Jordonka Donkova, BUL, Sofia, 1987-02-14
7,74, Michelle Freeman, JAM, Madrid, 1998-02-03
7,74, Gail Devers, USA, Boston, 2003-03-01

Susanna Kallur's Yearly Bests

1998 8.33i		..........	1998	13,48
1999 8.44i		..........	1999	13,41
2000 8.10i		..........	2000	13,02
2002 8.00i		..........	2001	12,74
2003 7.90i		..........	2002	12,94
2004 7.88i		..........	2003	12,88
2005 7.80i		..........	2004	12,67
2006 7.86i		..........	2005	12,65
2007 7.84i		..........	2006	12,52
2008 7.68i		..........	2007	12,49

All-time list source: Peter Larsson

CAS Upholds Stambolova, Veneva Doping Bans

Story written by EPelle

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday upheld the suspensions of two of Bulgaria's Olympic medal hopefuls, high jumper Venelina Veneva and 400m sprinter, Vanya Stambolova, after the two were suspended for having tested positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition test in January 2007.

Both athletes, who share the same coach, Georgi Dimitrov, had their urine samples collected at an unexpected check during training in Budapest, Hungary on 24-January. Veneva also provided a further positive sample from an IAAF out-of-competition doping control conducted on 6-February in Sofia, Bulgaria.

"As far as the rules allowed us, we did our best to give the athletes a chance to prove their innocence," Bulgarian athletics federation president Dobromir Karamarinov said Tuesday.

"However, the court's decision is categorical and we accept it. Both athletes will miss the Beijing Games, but they will be able to compete again in April 2009."

Both athletes were provisionally suspended by the IAAF pending the result of the Bulgarian Athletic Federation's hearing on the two cases. The Bulgarian Athletic Federation cleared Stambolova and Veneva of doping violations in July in a controversial move, and forced the IAAF's Doping Review Board to take the case to the CAS.

The Bulgarian Athletic Federation stated they reversed the initial positive findings due to what they cited was incomplete analysis and "borderline" testosterone detection levels.

"When we received the positive result the 23rd of March, we asked them to even test the "B"-sample. The result was just on the border, and we have decided to not issue any sanctions," the Bulgarian news bureau Novonite quoted Karamarinov on as stating.

The International Association of Athletics Federations sent the case directly to CAS following the Bulgarian association's decision, citing that the decision was in opposition to existing IAAF protocol.

The IAAF made a formal statement on the issue, stating that all three samples collected from the two atheltes were analysed in the Lausanne WADA accredited laboratory where analysis of the urine samples were conducted by Isotope Ration Mass Spectrometry (IRMS).

The results of the IRMS conclusively established the administration of testosterone or its precursors. The "B"-sample analysis also confirmed the initial "A"-sample results, meaning that the two urine specimens collected at the same and split into two separate units both confirmed the same findings.

Though Karamarinov was optimistic that both athletes can return to competition in two years's time, the ban could signal the end of the 33-year-old Veneva's career. It also certainly puts in doubt her previous accomplishments over the past three years.

Veneva, who won silver at the 2006 European Championships in Göteborg in a highly charged and well-contested competition won by surprise winner Tia Hellebaut of Belgium, and bronze at the 2007 European indoor championships, has long been held under suspicion by her international colleagues, with world indoor record-holder, Kajsa Bergqvist, Veneva's staunchest critic.

Bergqvist became both relieved and glad when she learned that her rival, Veneva, was caught for doping with testosterone.

"I have suspected her for almost 10 years time," Bergvist stated to Swedish news agency TT.

"As [the way] she has set up her seasons and suddenly appeared at championships, I have understood that there was something shady. That she has finally gotten caught is an unbelievable relief, but one had hoped that it could have occured earlier," says Kajsa Bergqvist.

Veneva's having jumped very good heights early in the summer in non-major meets close to her home in either Bulgaria or Greece followed by not competing at all during the month or so leading up to the major championships led to part of the suspicion Bergqvist and other athletes had concerning Veneva.

Veneva was also regularly and conspicuously absent from the major Grand Prix and Golden League meets during the main part of the season where all the other top jumpers competed against each other.

The Golden League is a series of competitions the IAAF formed for the 1998 season to raise the profile of the leading athletics competitions in Europe. Athletes who compete in selected events - and win their event at all of the Golden League meetings - are qualified for a share of the $1Million jackpot offered.

The lucrative European Grand Prix circuit is where many athletes earn their living during their athletics careers, and one in which Veneva had earlier participated before shelving the international competitions for local ones with little or no competition... or drug testing.

The 24-year-old Stambolova was European champion in 2006, running 49,85 to defeat Russians Tatyana Veshkurova and Olga Zaytseva for the gold.

Stambolova holds four Bulgarian natiional records, and has a lifetime best in the 400m of 49,56 seconds - a mark she set in Rieti, Italy 17 days after her European title.

Stambolova's entire 2006 season will come into question as she set three of her national records (400m indoors, 400m outdoors and 400m hurdles) just months before her positive drugs test. She recorded a total of eight national all-time bests at the 400m distance in 2006, taking her personal best down from 52,99 to 49,53 -- unheard of in the 400m.

Veneva is the 11th-best female performer outdoors in the high jump at 2,04m. She has jumped a lifetime best of 2,02m indoors - the 13th-best performer. Country mate Stefka Kostadinova holds the world outdoor record of 2,09m set at the 1987 IAAF World Championships in Rome.

The CAS was created in 1984 and is placed under the administrative and financial authority of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS). The CAS has nearly 300 arbitrators from 87 countries, chosen for their specialist knowledge of arbitration and sports law. Around 200 cases are registered by the CAS every year.

UK Athletics Chief Calls For Tougher Anti-Doping Measures

Story written by EPelle

UK Athletics Chief Executive Niels de Vos has demanded that drug cheats within his sport be subjected to criminal proceedings, and would like police involvement in an attempt to thwart athletes from cheating their way to success.

"Athletics is a sport where we have to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to root out and identify cheats and then, when we have done, not to turn around and welcome them back with open arms two years later.

"It is, it seems to me, wholly hypocritical. A British vest is something that people rightly strive years to earn and achieve. It's one of the greatest moments of their lives, and for it to be despoiled by a cheat is wrong and my job, as a chief executive, is to make that vest maintains its purity in the future.

"The prevailing view among UK athletes and many world athletes is that there should be a lifetime ban for drug offences. I'd like to see the world governing body institute lifetime bans for drug cheats."

Those sentiments were in response to disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers' attempted comeback -- an action dos Vos would like to see fail (See related article).

Chambers returned from a two-year anti-doping suspension in 2006, and was permitted to return to the sport under former UK Athletics executive David Moorcraft - a former 5.000m world-record holder. Chambers owes a considerable fortune to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for being payed earnings whilst he was on drugs, and will be forced to pay back that money if - and when - he can.

Chambers attempted to make a career in the NFL, but was unsuccessful at making it out of NFL Europe (the feeder league for the NFL consisting of six teams: Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Amsterdam) before it folded its league.

Chambers has since attempted to return to track and field, and has hopes of qualifying for the IAAF World Indoor Championships - a goal which de Vos would like to deny Chambers. Chambers has vowed to make this a legal battle in an effort to put back on the Union Jack vest and compete for his country.

The Chambers controversy isn't the primary focus de Vos has in his immediate line of sight, however. de Vos would also like to have law enforcement more involved in the fight to keep his sport clean, and has suggested Great Britain follow the French model. where possesssion of banned substances has begun leading to criminal charges.

de Vos could take this matter further, however, as merely catching athletes in an act of possesing illegal performance-enhancing drugs will not prove to be easy.

The Italian anti-doping agency works in conjunction with prosecutors to enforce state power to punish athletes, support personnel, doctors, coaches and leaders involved in criminal anti-doping matters.

The Italian ministry routinely tracks banned substances by reviewing lists maintained by both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

A criminal investigation is launched by the prosecutor's office when they are alerted by those lists that an athlete has been implicated in a doping scandal. The prosecutor has extensive authorisation to approve wire taps, if they believe that evidence of possible doping has occurred with an athlete.

The Italian Olympic Committee can also request of its anti-doping prosecutor to request FIDAL -- the Italian Athletics Federation -- to punish athletes.

The French are not alone in making concerted efforts to criminalise those who cheat, as Portuguese authorities discussed an initiative at their 2007 National Sports Council to propose tough sentences that range from six months to three years in prison for those convicted of violating certain anti-doping rules.

The European Union's member states have initiatives in place to combat the problem of doping, with both specific and general legislation suggested for public anti-doping violations, and joint action available by public authorities and sport organisations to criminalise violations.

de Vos joined the Sale Sharks rugby team at the start of the 2002-2003 season, and helped them win the Premiership trophy in 2006. He is credited with turning around fan support and participation with the team - key elements UK Athletics are hoping to bank off of during de Vos's tenure as chief executive.

Gatlin Files Appeal to CAS

Story written by EPelle

Suspended American sprinter Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100m gold medalist and previous co-world record-holder (9,77 seconds), has appealed his four-year doping ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), his attorney said on Tuesday.

Gatlin, 25, who tested positive for testosterone - or its precursors - after having submitted to a drug test at the 2006 Kansas Relays, has vigorously fought the allegations that he committed an anti-doping offense, and stated the testosterone had likely entered his body without his knowledge and without his consent.

Trevor Graham, his coach, has maintained that a disgruntled and bitter Nike employee rubbed a mysterious cream on Gatlin, and that triggered the positive test.

The employee, Chris Whetstine, denied those allegations.

Later, Graham speculated that he -- not Gatlin -- might have been the target because of anger in the track and field world surrounding his decision to send the syringe filled with steroids to USADA in 2003 sparked the fire which became the BALCO scandal. The federal investigation that Graham launched resulted in five criminal convictions and more than a dozen athlete suspensions. According to that theory, Graham's enemies wanted to take him down by implicating Gatlin, his star runner.

Logic begs to inquire that if this were really the case, that Whetstine wanted to get back at Graham, why Whetstine simply didn't plant evidence on Graham's possession, in his vehicle or at his home, call the authorities and say that he had seen Graham take with him a prohibited substance. Graham would have been implicated and no one would ever doubt again that Graham had any connection to doping athletes.

Instead, the world was spoon fed an incredulous story - which has gotten much more interesting and more detailed as time has gone along - about a pink coloured "s" swiggle, and a recollection that Gatlin told Graham to basically back off when the commotion started. You're first told by Graham that it was he who wanted to intercede, but the tube was quickly put away in Whetstine's pocket, and Graham didn't think anything more of it. Now it has changed and become more elaborate with Gatlin stating, "Let him do his job, man!"

If one takes Graham's side, Whetstine did his job so effectively that he rubbed a compound into Gatlin which had Dehydroepiandrosterone, also known as DHEA, as its active ingredient -- a substance which would without question cause a positive doping test.

Something strange I would like to acknowledge here is that if Graham had any concern for Gatlin, who apparently went through every conceivable precaution as to not ever test positive (including locking his luggage, ordering room service when away), he would have stopped everything right then and there, and told Gatlin he was concerned with what had just occured; he would have rushed Whetstine and forced his hand into the pocket. He didn't. What neatly disappeared in this version of Graham's story is the portion where Graham apparently told Whetstine that Gatlin didn't need a massage in the first place.

"All I saw was the massage therapist go into a bag and bring out something else," Walker said. "He rubbed something else on Justin. . . . It was right there in front of me. It wasn't what he used on Shawn," is what the Washington Post revealed ast year.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which has a strict liability anti-doping rule in place making anything found within the athlete's body their responsibility, originally banned Gatlin eight years for committing a second anti-doping offense. Gatlin was successful in having the original sanction reduced to four years after having co-operated with anti-doping recommendations that he provide his full support in leading to the source of the drugs -- believed to be Graham.

Gatlin first tested positive at the 2001 USA Junior Nationals for an amphetamine contained in an Attention Deficit Disorder medication he had been taking for 10 years. He was originally suspended for two years by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which reinstated him one year later following appeals.

The IAAF did not, however, word its ruling as such that Gatlin had not failed a drugs test, but had rather re-instated him despite the breach of rules in place; Gatlin had not intentionally doped, they stated, but had violated anti-doping rules by competing at a sanctioned event without having received (or even applied for) a Therapeutic Use Exemption, or TUE for short.

Under the World Anti-Doping Code, WADA has mandated that all athletes with documented medical conditions request a TUE, and after having had such request appropriately dealt with by a panel of independent physicians called a Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (TUEC), promply receive either a grant or a decline of his/her application.

WADA has the TUE rule in place in a concerted effort to ensure athletes do not experience significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance or method; the therapeutic use of the substance would not produce significant enhancement of performance; and there would be no reasonable therapeutic alternative to the use of the otherwise prohibited substance or method.

Gatlin had his medication, Adderall, listed with the University of Tennessee, where he was a student-athlete, but he failed to list the medication with USATF. He competed without having requested for the TUE, and was later stripped of his winning marks and places as a result of that rules violation.

According to IAAF reports from 2001 following the first suspension, Gatlin harboured no resentment for having been banned a year:

"I knew the right thing to do was accept the suspension," he said in May. "I just broke the rules, which were the rules.

"It motivated me to do better this year. A lot of people can't back from something like that. It hurts them mentally and physically. I want to prove to everyone that I'm a strong person and that I have what it takes to be one of the best in the world."

The IAAF, in review of the 2001 case, stated that there was no intentional part on Gatlin's behalf to cheat, and it was discovered that Adderall in-and-of-itself provided no enhancement to Gatlin, but they did not remove the term "doping violation" from their ruling - a sticking point which would cause Gatlin problems in 2007.

The IAAF did warn Gatlin following their reversal of his original ban - though still a violation of their rules, however, that any future positive drugs test would result in a lifetime ban from the sport, which leads Gatlin to his curent situation.

Now that Gatlin has been entangled in a second drug controversy, he's attempted to have the first IAAF opinion erased, and used a number of arguments with the AAA - including having been a juvenile whilst committing the first offense - to no avail.

The majority of a three-member American Arbitration Association (AAA) panel banned Gatlin for his 2006 positive test, having ruled that it was Gatlin's second positive test. In theory, they were correct insofar as in their ruling they stated that had the IAAF previoulsy re-instated Gatlin and not deemed him to have committed an anti-doping violation, they did not specifically and unequivocally state that in their ruling, a split decision that included a 53-page opinion and 22-page dissent.

"If the IAAF “eliminated” any period of ineligibility because it believed that, under the circumstances either there should have been no finding of a doping violation or because Mr. Gatlin had “no fault” in that violation, then the first offense should not be considered to be a prior offense for purposes of the award for a second violation. This Panel is unable, on the record before it, to ignore the first doping violation, but shall retain jurisdiction to amend this award in the event that Mr. Gatlin receives from IAAF or otherwise, a ruling which might alter the view of the first offense in 2001."

"The Dissent hereing makes an impassioned case that the facts and circumstances of that first offense, namely the advice of the USATF and USADA that it was sufficient for athletes simply to discontinue their non-competition use of medications, and law, namely the Americans with Disabilities Act and Swiss Law, compel the conclusion that Mr. Gatlin essentially had no fault at all in the first offense. The Dissent does not explain, then, why that first panel found a doping violation. If the standard in 2001 was simply negligence, and Mr. Gatlin was not negligent because the actions and advice of the USATF and USADA had to be considered as part of the anti-doping rules or an interpretation of those rules, then the appropriate conclusion would, it appears to the majority, have been a finding of no doping offense. However, that was not the case."

Said the AAA panel regarding Gatlin's juvenile claim:

"He asserts that because the first event was in the 2001 U.S. Junior Nationals, an age restricted event, Mr. Gatlin, though 19 at the time, should be considered a minor for the purposes of the Panel’s evaluation under the Guidelines. This argument is similarly rejected with the same cautionary note as with the prior argument."

Prior to his 2006 bust, neither Gatlin nor the IAAF - or USADA for that matter - had acted on his behalf to have the first "offense" removed from record rather than accepting that he had committed a violation and was allowed to compete despite that anti-doping misdemeanour. This has become Gatlin's achilles heel, and he's attempting to recover from that earlier misstep stated by his counsel to be an administrative violation, not an anti-doping one.

"With these filings, Mr. Gatlin is taking the next steps in recovering his right to defend his gold medal in the 100 meters, silver medal in the 400 meters relay and bronze in the 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics," Maurice Suh said in a statement on Tuesday.

The appeal was filed on Monday to Lausanne-based CAS, with Suh requesting the hearing take place in New York.

"While there are many possible avenues that we are currently exploring, the appeal of the arbitration panel decisions are a critical component of his defense," Suh's statement added.

"To use this (2001) sanction to bar him from participating in the Olympics is a prime example of unfairness to an athlete, and a grossly inappropriate balance of anti-doping efforts against the right of individuals to pursue their careers and their dreams," Suh said.

"Most troublingly, it constitutes a discrimination against a person with a diagnosed disability."

The dissenting member of the AAA panel, Christopher Campbell, furthered that sentiment in his ruling (referenced above):

"Mr. Gatlin’s first offence would be covered by art. 8 because it was a mental disability and he obviously faced a disadvantage because of it. Incidentally, so did Mr. Ricky Harris. These Fundamental Rights must be respected by private entities such as the USOC, USADA, USATF and the IAAF. Article 35 states:

Realization of Fundamental Rights

1. The fundamental rights shall be realized in the entire legal system.
2. Whoever exercises a function of the state must respect the fundamental
rights and contribute to their realization.
3. The authorities shall ensure that the fundamental rights also be respected in relations among private parties whenever the analogy is applicable.67 (emphasis added)

"Mr. Gatlin, Mr. Harris and any other athlete who has received sanctions because of taking medicine for their disability have their fundamental rights violated. In the case of Mr. Gatlin, he will not be allowed to work in his chosen profession for two years above what he should have been sanctioned. In Mr. Harris’ case, he was not allowed to work for a year and faces the same draconian predicament that Mr. Gatlin is experiencing. As stated above, there is no justifiable reason to limit these athletes’ fundamental rights. There is no goal pursued by the Anti-Doping Organizations that a retroactive award would inhibit. The sanctions are a violation of the law."

If CAS were to agree, Gatlin's 2006 positive test would be considered his first and he would be eligible for a two-year ban. That would allow him to return to competition in May, a month ahead of the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon in June.

One pitfall Gatlin faces, however, is that the IAAF will have required him, as a banned athlete, to have been available for random, out-of-competition drug tests the past 12 months prior to his potential return. It is not known if Gatlin has been approached by anti-doping officials or been subjected to such tests.

Graham, who faces federal obstruction charges stemming from the BALCO investigation, goes to trial in June before Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco, CA.

Will Chambers Ever Truly Comeback?

Story written by EPelle

Twelve months ago British sprinter Dwain Anthony Chambers attempted to become an NFL star. He attempted valiantly to play in the limelight in America, turn over a new leaf, walk past the transgressions he committed in the sport of track and field and into the promising and quite lucrative sport of tackle football some five time zones and one continent removed from home - and away from critics.

A year later, after having made and then lost out on what was to have been the next stage in his bid to become an NFL star after injuring himself during a practice session, Chambers is attempting to make a comeback into the sport which once hailed him as a hero, and now looks down condescendingly to a man who had cheated his way to the top.

Chambers, the former European Champion over 100m, built his previous athletic success by taking drugs — illegal, performance-enhancing ones which, at the time, were completely undetectable, absolutely unknown and unequivocally wrong to use.

These were BALCO drugs, and having been outed as an associate of Victor Conte and Remi Korchemny, Chambers paid a steep and heavy price for his role in that scandal - one which has mainly been American-based and has involved persons like Marion Jones and Dana Stubblefield - two former athletes who have in recent days both been charged with lying to the same U.S. IRS Agent, Jeff Novitsky, regarding their association to Conte's illegal laboratory in Burlingame, California.

Jones is set to spend six months in prison for her role in that case along with an unrelated check-fraud one; Stubblefield will be sentenced in two months' time.

Chambers, who has never been jailed for a crime many consider relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, has a hill to traverse as he attempts to lace up his spikes and compete for a living - literally and in the figurative sense. No, make that a mountain to climb. He has no less than £180.000 (roughly $360.000) to repay to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for having confessed to previously earning a living on their dime, so to speak.

I've continued following Chambers' NFL and sprint aspirations with keen appreciation, as I had a previous opportunity to spend time with him one-on-one, and experience the sincerity he displays when he speaks about his life openly and with stunning candor.

The athletic road ahead for Chambers will test him to wits' end, as he attempts to jump through hurdles and obstacles to regain form, fitness, and opportunity to compete at an incredibly high price - one which will cost meet organisers nothing in the form of appearance fees, but will cost Chambers everything until he is able to satisfy his debt to the IAAF.

Chambers has a greater debt to Great Britain and his sports federation than he does to the international governing body of his sport, for he has shamed his nation and merely ripped off the former.

Sebastian Coe, Vice President of the IAAF - and former multiple middle distance world-record holder, stated a week ago that he would not remain quiet about Chambers's possible selection to the British team should he qualify, but would leave the decision up to UK Athletics. Steve Cram, who's best mile time removed Coe from the top of the world-record list, also voiced his concerns in a column a day after Coe did.

Chambers faced tall odds on his previous return to track and field in 2006, but seemed to get through them without falling apart in the process. His drive got him back on to the track. His determination landed him to the next level up where he was able to be selected to the European Championships relay team for Great Britain.

Unfortunately, no amount of grit in the world will be sufficient enough to provide Chambers one of those precious few spots on his Olympic team — a goal to which every professional track and field athlete aspires. And his national athletics body — along with several senior-level key players — are hoping to stop Chambers from potentially further ruining their nation's reputation — especially as they set shop up to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Chambers will need to bottle up all of his anger, every bit of his remorse, his entire stock and supply of hope and combine them with a genuinely large stroke of luck in order to be considered for the Great Britain & Northern Ireland Olympic team.

First, however, he will need to line up on a track and begin putting up times and places which would warrant such a look — a process which will elude him this winter indoor season as his colleagues prepare to contest the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March. UK Athletics mandated that all athletes who were interested in competing at their national championships would have had to have been in a 12-month anti-doping process as dictated by IAAF. Chambers failed to meet this criteria, as he was not available for IAAF antil-doping procedures during his attempt to make the NFL through the now defunct NFL Europe.

Chambers is demonstrating remarkable composure and dedication to this venture. Will the men in charge at the next junction pick the last man standing, or will they pen a red line through his name, yell, "next", and tell Chambers "thank you, you may go home now, goodbye"?

Whether or not Chambers made a successful journey to the NFL, he vowed last year to return to the track.

"Part of my mind is saying, 'leave track alone' but it is not the wise thing to do. If it doesn’t work out in Tampa, I’ve time for track this summer," he was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail over a year ago.

"I plan to come back to track regardless. It’s something I still believe I have a passion for. At the moment, I don’t but I will in time."

Chambers has a great support system behind him, having his mother, Adlith and his partner, Leone backing him as he continues forward from a past filled with a commitment to excellence, but also a past which crossed over to a darker period he'd just as soon forget.

Of Leone, he states: "If I didn’t [listen to her], I’d get my ear chewed. And then I speak to Jonathan and he brings a whole different perspective to it. It’s tough because I am used to doing everything my way."

Chambers opens up candidly about his mother.

"She always said, 'be careful what you do', and then for her to have to go out still holding her head up when people made comments … that’s hard on her.

"She was fantastic. In her mind, as long as I am okay, she is okay. She always says what people write in the papers are just words. Mind, I only showed her positive stuff in papers. Mothers don’t understand negative stuff, do they?

"She’s strong and she has her church and that kept her uplifted a lot, and during that time I kept with her a lot which helped put her mind at ease, and now she gets to see my son a lot which takes her mind off the other things."

Chambers is attempting to be very careful about how he proceeds in the sport, because he has a life savings of money to repay. He also has several million people who believe he is a pariah to convince that he was an honest man who made a mistake.

Honesty wasn't Chambers's best quality when he was discovered to have been a drugs cheat during the BALCO investigation, and he, like others including Jones, fully and rigorously denied having any connection to performance-enhancing drugs. His country bought it, and stuck with him at a very high price.

It seems that repayment plan - including interest - is not something Chambers will be able to afford, no matter how much sentiment or desire he puts into it.

Wheels of Justice: Jones Awaits Sentencing

Story written by EPelle

Convicted felon Marion Jones has made a career of injecting her body with chemicals that have been known to be undetectable in a concerted and aggravated effort to provide enhanced performance with little consequence of being outed as a cheat.

She propped her body full of these illegal aides from 1997-2006 to secure fame and fortune by method of fraud, and she has found no reason to discontinue doing so today as she awaits her stay of prison term during this, the 25th hour since her confession to telling lies, lies and more lies to the detriment of two investigations of large proportions.

Marion Jones isn't taking blood-boosting gels, creams or injectable substances today to aid her attempts to dissuade a very experienced Federal judge from being too ambitious with incarceration sentencing guidelines, rather she's injecting herself with a form of "the clear" in a truth serum which has the desired effect of appearing that she is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help her God.

Marion Jones has put enough serum into her body to persuade her eyes to shed tears and her voice to shake on queue and on camera just as the directions on the unlabeled box stated they would:

Open and use only in case of emergency. Apply two drops to the mouth, once in the morning, once in the evening following an inability to naturally tell the truth. Keep cheeks square, voice raised and visualise unnatural and unpleasant thoughts about nesting with Ugly Betty to provide quivering effect. Practice twice daily in front of a large mirror.

Warning: do not overdose, as doing so may cause one to further perjur themself. Always consult a qualified attorney prior to use. Not re-fillable.

And so it became that, through deception and lies, Marion Jones pinned the tale on the donkey which is the US Justice Department, and she’s hoping she has hit pay dirt with her newest arsenal of attack weapons – one which lost thrust and flare, and contain a sound smaller than a pin drop rather than a loud, bolstering, big bang. She has no assurances from Victor Conte that these drugs will work, as he’s moved on long past her into an apparent clean slate of business, hence Marion Jones is unsure she will hit utopia with the desired outcome.

Insofar as she has lost the opportunity to overpower her opponent, Judge Karas, as she had done so with other government agencies attempting to strike gold in the truth department, by playing victim in perjury matters concerning the drugs, she has no choice but to hope her having displayed a semblance of humility and humanness will win over his desire to punish her with custodial measures. If Karas holds true to form with regard to federal defendants and matters of perjury, Marion Jones will leave court today damning the man whose sole job it is to uphold the law – the rules Marion Jones freely and did with conscious effort broke.

Weeks ago, in the beginning of October, Marion Jones stepped up to the witness stand and allowed the United States government to judge her guilty of lies to which she confessed – yet only to a degree in direct proportion to the punishment she anticipated on receiving. She was ushered away to leave two sets of fingerprints, a palm imprint and DNA samples – requirements for those who are suspected of disobeying the law.

The truth she spoke was revealing to the naked eye, but those who, like Judge Karas, have been with the program and have seen through the thick fog of lies Marion Jones has told even to this day with respect to her involvement with the charges to which she has pleaded guilty, have not been inclined to forgive a person in Marion Jones who provides good theatrics, but has no substance matter to the spiel.

Now that the hour has come to collect a reward of granted pardon or a punishment of prison, Marion Jones will awake this morning as she presumably does on days like today – with a calendar by her side, a marker signifying the importance of the day, and perhaps one final time take a special dose of cocktail drugs designed to provide an enhanced performance. Maybe they’ll be aspirin. Maybe they won’t.

Marion Jones will stand in front of her long mirror, practice her facial expressions to her satisfaction, and head to the court with the same competitive attitude she has demonstrated toward anything which has gotten in her way; her goal is to stay home and raise two boys who need their mother, according to her current husband, Obadele Thompson.

She’ll stand in the blocks today hoping the new dose of drugs will kick in as requested, and she will again act on queue to the great appreciation or utter disappointment – whichever is par for the course – as Karas hands down his decision in the matter of The United States of America vs. Marion Lois Jones.

Should Karas feel so inclined to follow previous precedent for rewarding equal and just punishment for such crimes as these committed, Marion Jones will have to temper her anger and hope she's got enough in reserve to ease the pain of having lost her toughest battle to-date, though she will still have won by not having had to reveal the hidden past before September 2000 - the time-frame she stated Graham began doping her.

And then life will go on, Marion Jones will be a faint memory, and the sport of athletics will continue to go on in a positive spotlight until August, when television commentators will undoubtedly remind their millions of viewers of the tragedy which engulfed the greatest of stars, who, once-upon-a-time, won five medals in a single Olympic Games… all by method of deception and fraud.

Until then, stayed tuned today to news sources near you, as Marion Lois Jones, winner of prestige and honour, money and fame - all by method of deception and fraud - is to stand before society for the sins she has committed against it.

White Clears Her Conscious

Story written by EPelle

Kelli White, as you have learned in the history of this sport from sources unlimited and too numerous to state, had, like Marion Jones, committed the worst possible athletics sin known to the spirit of competition: she did wilfully, and with extreme prejudice for achieving the objective for which she had set out, participate in a plan to execute and cover up a scheme to defraud this sport of its history, records and reputation – resulting in condemnation for her, shame on her family, and banishment for two years from the sport which had provided her success and livelihood.

White sided with Victor Conte and became a cheat, or a person despised for betraying the ethics of hard work and dedication by using an illegal method to defy the limits placed on nature. She carries with that a stigma which will always stick to her side like an unbearable cramp during a marathon race – this one a race away from the past and into a future of her choosing.

By using a needleless syringe filled with a pale yellow-coloured clear under her tongue on an average of every second day, applying the cream to her arm and taking EPO injection shots into her stomach to wilfully deceive and cheat and being linked with using these undetectable drugs, White was immediately removed from her arsenal were the free passes to Eugene, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Zürich – and every other place which seemed to glitter under the night lights by the world’s greatest, most knowledgeable fans in attendance cheering on her every step toward the finish line.

Her redefined place in the sport has been a spot behind a television set several time zones removed from the action in which she had longed to compete, and had sorely missed. White was subsequently stripped of her 2003 USA Outdoor 100m and 200m titles, her 2003 World Championships 100m and 200m titles (including $120.000 in prize money), and was stripped of all results between 2000-December-15 – 2004-May-19.

The results were Kelli White’s own problem and were her own doing. She made a mistake, and the consequences – tough as they might have seemed – were fair, accurate, and immediate.

The thing with Kelli White, however, is that she rose, she fell, she cried and then made her peace with the sport – a seemingly everlasting one which appears to have paid dividends in not having come clean beyond her ability, so help her God, but in having shown true remorse for actions which were shameful and incredibly selfish, and taking action to ensure others have a fighting chance of not repeating her mistakes.

Three years after being exposed as a cheater and stapled together with the BALCO bunch, White spoke before the 2007 Anti-Doping Congress about the lures of using performance-enhancing drugs and the obstacles anti-doping officials are facing to cleaning up the sport.

When she was asked yesterday by the Associated Press why she continues to talk about her failure when so many others have hidden, she simply says that she has to.

“The pain is so deep, it’s important that I tell you ‘Don’t go there, don’t even bother.’”

White carries with her a black mark in the history of the sport which was created with indellible ink – such a mark which stirs up bad memories for those who value the meaning of clean competition and fair play among competitors. She has had her liberties taken from her to a certain extent, but has taken the opportunities afforded her to risk hitting an emotional bottom whilst preventing other athletes faced with similar choices to cheat an opportunity to make the correct choice and not give in to the temptations – despite the lure of money, fame and fortune.

White had earlier testified about her use of performance-enhancing drugs before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, S. 529/U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday, 2005-May-24.

Excerpted are statements White made during that testimony:

“Shortly thereafter [her graduation from the University of Tennessee, and return home to California to train under Remi Korchemny], in December, 2000, my coach introduced me to BALCO founder Victor Conte. Conte initially gave me a package containing both legal supplements, as well as a substance which later became known as the clear or the designer steroid THG. At the time, I was unaware that anything I received from Mr. Conte was a prohibited performance enhancing substance as I was told by both my coach and Mr. Conte that the vial they had given me contained flaxseed oil. A few weeks later, Mr. Conte admitted to me that the substance he had given me was indeed not flaxseed oil, but rather a prohibited substance that if not taken properly, could yield a positive drug test. I immediately ceased using the liquid because at that time in my career I did not believe it was necessary to take performance enhancing drugs to be competitive. I competed over the next two years without the use of any performance enhancing substances despite being constantly urged to do so. I was continuously being told that the usage of performance enhancing substances were necessary to be competitive because everyone else was doing so.”

“In March of 2003, I made a choice that I will forever regret. I visited Mr. Conte at his lab which was near my home, and we sat down and devised a program to utilize performance enhancing drugs in my training and competition. At that time, I began taking EPO, the clear (or THG), the cream and stimulants. I remained on this program over the course of four months, and with the help of Mr. Conte, I was able to pass 17 drug tests both in and out of competition while utilizing these prohibited performance enhancing substances.”

“A few weeks after the World Championships, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies raided the BALCO Laboratory. A few months later, I admitted to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) officials what I had done as I have outlined for you today. I received a two-year ban from competition for my actions, as well as lost all of the results from my previous four years of competition. I also agreed to assist USADA in its mission to clean up sport, and now offer to be of service to this Committee in any way you see fit. I believe athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs are hurting themselves, cheating the public and betraying our youth. A performance-enhancing drug user trades his or her overall health, well-being and integrity for a shot at fame and fortune.”

“My attorney, Jerrold Colton, and I have worked with assisting USADA in its efforts, and we believe this Committee should further support USADA as the fight is a very difficult one. Being mindful that my use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs was not detected through the extensive testing I received, USADA needs the resources to go further in its fight to detect the people who are breaking the rules. The BALCO scandal may not have been discovered without a competitor’s coach anonymously sending a syringe of THG to the USADA testers which ultimately led to the discovery of this heretofore unknown steroid.”

In a twist of fate, White, a former drug-cheat and a deceiver, stands to be the shining star in the BALCO bust by stating that she did, solemnly swear that she took undetectable substances which would be prohibited at all times had they been known – substances which should never be used.

Counsel for Tim Montgomery questioned White's motives in offering her testimony during CAS hearings against Montgomery and Chryste Gaines concerning Montgomery's use of the Clear and, more generally, his relationship with BALCO. They sought without success to impugn her honesty and to draw attention to White's own history of involvement with BALCO and her efforts to conceal that involvement. However, the CAS Panel declared its finding with respect to White's credibility as a witness in those proceedings and its view was that she was telling the truth.

USADA also believed White's having been up-front and personal in the matters concerning her drugs use proved to be an invaluable assett to her.

“Kelli White accepted accountability for her actions and she is able to look herself in the mirror and the world will forgive her,” said Travis Tygart, USADA's general counsel. “These two [Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines], for the rest of their lives, will go down as not only using drugs but doing everything possible -- and at great expense to clean athletes -- to avoid the truth.”

Last time White spoke on the matter of BALCO and her drugs use, she was closer to the fall-out, and had fresh experiences from which to describe.

“I felt that to do this (drug use), I had to become someone totally different than I was. I had to compromise my integrity, my value system. I knew it was so wrong. “I look at that person and I'm like, 'That's not Kelli White. That's not who I am, who I started out to be.’”

White, in a story written by USA Today’s Dick Patrick, stated she felt betrayed by a coach with whom she reunited, and was provided drugs without her consent and she contends that Korchemny played clueless when he was indicted for BALCO involvement. She reveals to reporters in a Manhattan conference room in 2004-December that her performance-enhancing drugs usage began after her having later falling behind due to injury and seeing a rival athlete compete well at the 2003 USATF Indoor National Championships.

Despite the foregone conclusion that both White and Conte, two people who had stated they would like to clean up the sport have been deemed cheaters, and have broken a rule in society which is sacred to harmony and trust with others – with White also being deceived by Conte, they have both stated on record – in understandable second-grade terms, that they admit to their wrongdoings, and want to set the record straight as far as drug cheating and performance-enhancing drugs is concerned.

Marion Jones may attempt to take a cue from White's come to Jesus sermons offered up to boys and girls around the United States and take the higher, more moral ground in attempts to tell as much truth as possible. Her 15 minutes of fame have elapsed, however, and White has beaten her to the finish line fairly and squarely - one truthful statement at a time.

I wish White every success in her life's ventures -- despite the fact that in doing so I appear to be praising a "cheat" for coming clean when she should have never gone astray in the first place. There's a hard lesson learned in this mess somewhere, and White, victim of a facial stabbing near James Logan High School, her alma mater, seems poised to tell a good story with the best of intentions.

Forgive and Forget? Not So Fast Marion

Story written by EPelle

I bit down hard on my tongue during Marion Jones's televised "confession" about having lied to U.S. Federal agents conducting two separate investigations into improprieties in which she had been involved -- actions, which, according to her, were "stupid".

I held my breath -- or withdrew my fingers from writing, that is -- for two weeks on the topic until reading through enough of the "Forgive Marion, she's only human" articles to be able to skip church for the rest of the year -- columns written by writers who'd jumped on the Marion Jones bandwagon long, long past the point of even being able to understand the complexity of that staged event.

Sure, we've all come up short at times in our lives - I am no exception to this rule of human nature.

However, there is a line between falling short of an expectation on one or several occasions -- even over a lifetime -- and making an attempt to feed lies to diminish the value of that expectation as Marion Jones had done her entire professional career prior to "retiring" (read: "forced exit").

The only thing silly about the entire made-for-tv moment was the absolute waste of time Jones made it in providing a few words meant to be taken as an explanation for her motives for lying and revealing all she knew about cheating -- in this case, absolutely nothing.

Marion Jones stated that all she'd done was cover up a couple of small, little details about a simple little check her ex-boyfriend (and father of her first child), a dope cheater, himself, deposited into her account in the amount of $25.000 as part of a money laundering scheme to which he plead guilty, and only told a little white lie to a couple of I.R.S. agents when she'd sworn an oath to secrecy about flaxseed oil that a big, bad man named Trevor Graham had told her to keep to herself.

Previously a lawsuit-wielding, outspoken defender of (mis)truth, Marion Jones was now stating that she'd fallen off her high horse, was victimised by a bad apple and played a small, insignificant part in a couple of items considered foul play.

All of that power she attempted to wield the past four years over the authorities chasing her trail -- the USADA -- is now, suddenly, to have been nothing more than (or should that be less than) hot air in her fists if one is to buy the notion that she was able to shake them with great might at pursuers of truth and lie straight to their faces, but could not demonstrate power to say "no" to a person of bad favour, Trevor Graham.

Graham tricked her, she said, and she simply lied to save her career.

Her career, my friends, is one which had encompassed travelling the world on advertisers' budgets; staying at hotels under the money meeting arrangers saved for their expensive guests of honour; being paid enormous amounts of appearance fees to grace their tracks; leaving those tracks with even more money in bonuses for breaking records and running fast times; and winning prestige, honour and fame by method of deceit and fraud. It also meant meeting dignitaries, having a stadium named after her and being named to a U.S. Presidential Advisory Committee by George W. Bush.

That about sums it up for Marion Jones's 9-5 job.

Her second one involved shopping and spending the money in such a way as to continue with the lifestyle she'd grown accustomed to as she sneaked around the world in plain day as a cheat and laughed her way to the bank believing no one would ever find out.

We found out about her moonlighting, because her former coach, Dan Pfaff, was stiffed on a sum in excess of 200 large by Jones, and he sued her to collect money she owed him -- not the first time Marion Jones has been through the halls of justice in matters concerning non-payment of monies owed.

"You made some good money. Where did that money go?" Pfaff's attorney, Eric Little, asked Jones earlier this year in a Texas courtroom according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Who knows?" Jones replied. "I wish I knew. Bills, attorney bills, a lot of different things to maintain the lifestyle."

Going broke with that money -- which was not hers to use -- caused her to lose a couple of houses and get exposed as a pauper. It also called for an arduous process by the IAAF to attempt to recoup years of monies she was paid under false pretenses.

Marion Jones didn't tell you about the tens of millions she amassed in wealth over those years spent cheating. What she did do was limit her culpability to a short period of time as to not be outed as a complete farce or a total cheat -- if such a distinction can be made for one who cheats for a short period of time and one who had cheated since their first season on the track as a professional athlete.

Marion Jones will fall into that second category.

The evening she confessed, she wore a pinstriped suit before an audience which stretched around the world, put on an act of sorrow and guilt with the trifecta of emotions secured by her red eyes dripping tears down either side of her face.

Some in the public bought it. Most other people forgot it about a week later.

I, for one, however, never will.

I'm not shy in stating that I'd known Marion Jones was a cheat a long time ago, and there are no shortage of quotes on the internet for you to read at your leisure (including an earlier blog from me here from 2006-December-12).

Marion Jones needed not confess to tell me that -- logic and reasoning did an excellent job in not failing me when called upon to put understanding to how she climbed suddenly up a ladder in which she had never before been in the same postal code and pulled off a world championship victory in her first season as a professional (liar) back in 1997.

I wanted to strike certain buttons on my computer during her self-awareness speech two weeks ago, hit "enter" and just get it over with for her -- to simply confess for her right then and there as she followed her prepared revelation of some things past, and most things still hidden.

I couldn't, however, because Marion Jones's legacy, as well as that of her destiny -- as far as this sport is concerned -- is married to half truths, half lies and every denial in between; one peep from me about the real "truth" behind her confession and how deep her sins against the sport were rooted would have ended in Marion Jones contradicting herself and having her commit yet one more act of perjury before the authorities with whom she had earlier that hour discussed the details of her indiscretion with as little revelation as possible in order to receive the lightest punishment available.

Marion Jones, the heretofore "golden girl" of the sport, had revealed that she had misstated the truth, and attempted to forge ahead with as little of her blood spilled as possible on the issue. She exited the stage and was to not look back -- leaving nearly as nonchalantly as she entered the scene following a tumultuous 2006 season which pegged her as a drugs cheat, yet exonerated her at a later date for reasons too far and too touchy to discuss on one blog entry.

The only difference between the before and after of that night was that Marion Jones's mother, of whose first name she bears, had fallen down on the steps to justice, but was standing behind her daughter, patting her on the back, after justice was to be revealed to an audience of a few hoping to transmit the message to the four corners of the world.

Marion Jones lied another time to you and to me in leaving us with four minutes and 25 seconds of air time which revealed little about the truth, accomplished much less in terms of educating the public, and left her standing with medals and honours collected illegally from another period of time, namely the 1997 IAAF World Championships.

There are mixed messages we in the media and blog world are sending out to you concerning what to do with the information provided by Marion Jones that she conned people and had subsequently turned into a con, herself.

Some writers would have you take up her cross for her, forgive her and move on in an act of kindness which they say refreshes the soul and causes us to not harbour bitter feelings.

I'm not as apt to simply forgive and forget, because Marion Jones is destined to come back into the spotlight at a future junction -- she intimated that she would like to write a book.

Expectations from most are that the book will tell common John more than he knows now, but it will never fully tell the truth of the matter of Marion Lois Jones vs. Reality.

My reality is that I don't have to spend much time defending my propositions which suggested that Marion Jones was a cheat. She did that for me and everyone else who had either supported some of those notions, had their own, or those who had no idea that she should ever have been a suspect in the matter.

Talk today is based on how long she was a cheat, not if she was one.

My other sense of things real and not perceived, however, is that no matter what others may believe they know about Marion Jones with regard to the information she deliberately and carefully doctored as truth to the world, nothing outside of Marion Jones's own will can cover the gaping hole she left out as fact when stating she was merely a victim to a couple of other people's transgressions.

To have lied during a moment of truth reveals to me that Marion Jones, no matter how much one prods and pokes, threatens and takes away, will never, ever, ever give up the fight to keep the imposing amount of information she has left within herself -- even if that, too, could turn her long-term fortunes around.

That's why one believes that Marion Jones is better off away from the sport so that most folks go on about their lives in the moment of the scandal, but not affected by the greater lie left untold. If Marion Jones returns, the engine revvs up again, a similar song gets sung by -- and about -- her and a few people get on getting interested in the great Marion Jones -- a woman who once won five medals in a single Olympics, but who had to give them back...because she was a cheat.

Please, Marion, for God's sake -- since you've stated you've put your trust in Him to take you on through past this state of events -- stay out of the sport for your good and mine. You'd do us both a huge service, we could both go on with the rest of our lives not worried about what you say, how you cover it up and the sport could simply take this punch from you as a knock-down, but not a knock-out with respect to how average people view its cleanliness.

Then again, I'm not one for wishful thinking.

Truth or Wasted Black Ink?

Story written by EPelle

Dwain Anthony Chambers, the NFL Europe hopeful and a former world-class sprinter whom I've featured on several occasions on this blog, has spoken out on BBC's Inside Sport again being asked for a response on performance-enhancing drugs - including his own private usage and speculating whether or not Olympic athletes are also taking drugs.

Chambers' discussions follow a week-long spate of confessions in which former professional cycling riders and doctors to those Tour riders - and even a masseur - detailed their accounts of having used drugs (including EPO) and aided others along in the process, and comes at the heels of Floyd Landis' public arbitration hearing - which ended last Wednesday.

Chambers, interviewed by Matthew Pinsent - a BBC Sport reporter and four-time Olympic rowing gold medalist who was knighted in 2004, discussed among other things how a non-chalant attitude toward cheating caught up with Chambers.

"I was under the assumption that I wouldn't get caught," Chambers said on the programme, which airs tonight (28-may).

Chambers did get caught, and was punished by the three-man disciplinary counsel which heard his case and reached a conclusion after seven hours of testimony by the legal teams and expert witnesses representing UK Athletics (including Dr. Don Catlin) and Chambers. UK Athletics was said to have spent over £300.000 of its anti-doping budget on the Chambers case.

A newcomer to the drugs-testing world, THG was not named on either the WADA or IOC prohibited-substance list in 2003, however Dr. Catlin was able to scientifically demonstrate that chemically and pharmacologically, THG was directly derived from an identified anabolic steroid, gestrinone.

As previously stated on earlier blogs, Chambers was stripped of times, records, performances and honours achieved during the period he was on THG. He first denied having been a part of the BALCO scandal, attributing his positive test to a contaminated substace he received from a BALCO supplement, but later confessed and took his punishment following the hearing.

Since Chambers' admission to his performance-enhancing drugs usage, he's been an on-again, off-again topic for journalists the past four years, with courage to speak out about his misdeeds and the honesty to look people and other athletes in the face who have not been quick to extend him a welcome hand.

Chambers has tried to go on in life wearing two different shoes - one which has the lure of a good future, and one which has left a lengthy stretch of lawn gutted up when he dragged himself, his family, friends, fans and the sport of athletics through a dark period of lies, cover-ups and a blame culture.

"We all go through different chapters in life," Chambers said to Pinsett.

"I came to a crossroad in my life where I took a wrong turn, you know, got hit by a bus, but fortunately, I was able to get back up on my feet, and you know, go in another direction."

Chambers has had his back turned to athletics since he chose to go full-fledge into the world of professional American fotboll (NFL Europe) at the end of last year. Nevertheless, during each and every interview which is conducted with Chambers - even from yours truly, Chambers doesn't seem too tired or too bored to deal with the subject which continually arises about drug use - four years after the fact.

Chambers has no apparent axe to grind with the sport. He has parted ways temporarily in decent standing and at peace with his soul, and competed in last year's EAA European Championships in Göteborg in the 100m (7th in 10,24 seconds [result]) and 4x100m relay (lead-off leg on victorious 38,91 team [result]). Chambers has also gotten back a noticeable amount of fan support who have followed his transition to the gridiron.

Why then all the fuss about drug use, and is there any significance in speaking with Chambers about it?

Does Chambers provide insight into the issue of drugs usage, or do journalists simply find the right time to tie in old news to current events in order to piggy-back on the wave of the day?

Dwain Chambers, along with an American, Kelli White, seem to be the only athletes these days who have taken a social responsibility for their actions and have spoken openly, honestly and, at times, painfully about their exploits in the underground world of drug-taking and risk-taking.

So when the words "Olympics" and "sprinters" and "drugs" come up in conversation - a touchy topic, as Chambers has been barred from competing in the Olympics for Great Britain for the rest of his natural life, Chambers answers Pinsett's questions about whether a "clean" sprinter could defeat a "dirty" one in an Olympic final.

Plainly, calmly and assuredly, Chambers chimes in: "It's possible, but that person that's taken drugs has to be having a real bad day. That's what I believe."

Chambers believes a lot of things, and isn't shy to state what's on his mind.

One's first reaction to hearing and/or reading what Chambers has to say could be along the lines that Chambers harbours ill-will and a great deal of disappointment with the sport, and will take every opportunity to spread a cloud of doubt and suspicion over sprinting and athletics. He has not been alone, however, in discussing drugs-usage, with several other athletes from another sport, cycling, a step ahead of him.

A sudden about-face took place in professional cycling this past week, with Zheff de Hont, a former masseur of Germany's Team Telekom racing team telling the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he injected Jan Ullrich with EPO, and Georg Huber, who worked on six Olympic teams, acknowledging he provided cyclists testosterone between 1980 and 1990 - including 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis. One other rider, Christian Henn, a former Team Telekom member, last week admitted to previous EPO use.

Chambers tells Pinsett that WADA is a long way behind the dopers, and assures that there are other non-detectable drugs on the scene.

Ultimately, Dr. Catlin announced his resignation from the helm of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory on 2007-March-13 in what he described as an opportunity to turn to research.

According to Dr. Catlin, performance-enhancing drug use increased – not decreased – following the BALCO saga.

“If you’re a pro athlete and you read all about it and how extensive it is, even if you’re clean, you think: ‘Gee, I’ve got to get with it,’" he said in an interview with the New York Times last year.

"I have been quite surprised to see how extensive it is, even me, with the jaded eye with which I look at sports. There’s a lot more than I ever thought.”

Chambers offers an answer for the continued cat-and-mouse game being played between those who are behind the testing and those who are creating elusive ways for athletes to continue cheating.

"It's simple," he told Pinsett. "Science always moves faster than the testers."

Chambers' feet have moved faster than most others, as he's run from noll to 100m in under 10 seconds. His mouth moves slower than others when it comes time to talk about drugs, his past and the influence he has had on the sport - both positive and negative.

The words which he utters from his lips have proven to be true, thus far, and there's no reason to believe he won't continue speaking openly, freely and truthfully about the dirty world hidden far beneath the surface the every-day fan is able to see. He'll continue talking, because people continue asking. We continue asking, because others continue to get caught. Catching cheats will continue to happen, but, according to Chambers, millions of dollars thrown at "research" won't slow down the process.