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Elite Athletics Thread

1 lurker | 167 watchers
Fields
Fields
Oct 2022
4:59pm, 10 Oct 2022
6,861 posts
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Fields
Listened to a podcast today, there is or was a ban on asthma medication in French rugby, apparently due to one nations U20 team turning up with the entire squad on one medication.
SPR
SPR
Oct 2022
8:32pm, 10 Oct 2022
38,489 posts
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SPR
Confirmed that Ujah didn't do the any due diligence.

bbc.co.uk
fuzzyduck79
fuzzyduck79
Oct 2022
8:35pm, 10 Oct 2022
1,364 posts
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fuzzyduck79
Interview here: theguardian.com

Almost word for word what you suggested earlier:

However, Ujah, it turned out, was sloppy and unlucky.

Sloppy, because he did not check the brand he chose was approved by Informed Sport, which guarantees a product is batch‑tested for prohibited drugs before going on sale.
SPR
SPR
Oct 2022
8:56pm, 10 Oct 2022
38,490 posts
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SPR
Also in that interview it states that testing by Informed Sport is what proved it was via the supplement and he paid £700 for that testing.

Beta alanine actually is proven and is one that I've read about for middle distance and tried previously and probably would try again.

It would be interesting to know whether he bought from a reputable brand. I can imagine amateurs taking supplements wouldn't expect issues with Holland & Barrett for example but I can't imagine that would be an excuse for a pro.
damo_HAC
damo_HAC
Oct 2022
12:42pm, 11 Oct 2022
566 posts
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damo_HAC
12-58% of supplements may contain prohibited substances.

Reading your comments with interest. If the 12-58% figure is correct, well 1, that is a huge range, and 2 at the top end of the range its over half of supplements, so you would be nuts to risk it. Seems on the surface of it he took the lazy/stupid option. I think he probably wouldn't have taken them if CV19 hadn't hit and he was more face to face with his team.
larkim
larkim
Oct 2022
1:19pm, 11 Oct 2022
19,249 posts
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larkim
The 12-58% figure is from samples in studies done in 2002-2005 apparently, so I think perhaps we can discount that as being up to date info.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov section 4.1

He is primarily guilty of complacency, and that must be very hard to live with. On the AW forums I posted at the time that I hoped he was getting some mental health support from UKA as the outcome we're reading about is exactly the sort of scenario which could have been very hard to live with; cheating is bad, carelessness should be condemned and punished in this context, but if he had ended up depressed / suicidal as a result of this then that would have been perhaps a cost too high to have been extracted.

@SPR - am I right in reading that bit above about beta alanine that you've tried that supplementation for yourself? Wasn't sure if I was mis-reading that. Your thoughts on supplements would be interesting; I wouldn't bother, but I have no issues with others using them, but there are plenty of people who seem utterly anti-supplements.
fuzzyduck79
fuzzyduck79
Oct 2022
1:26pm, 11 Oct 2022
1,365 posts
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fuzzyduck79
Athletics Weekly (former editor?) Jason Henderson pretty unequivocal here:

athleticsweekly.com

Then says he takes some supplements himself, but that's fine as he'll never get tested
larkim
larkim
Oct 2022
1:47pm, 11 Oct 2022
19,250 posts
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larkim
Even Coe is equivocal in that quote.

I broke world records and usually found (normal) food enough to get me over the line.


"Usually" is doing a fair chunk of work there.

And the "I'll never get tested" bit is nonsense; if you're an up and coming 19 year old and find a supplement that works for you, you're not going to drop its use once you get selected for an event where you may get tested. Henderson might as well say "I take EPO, but its OK as I'll never get tested" for all of the logic that presents. (Yes, I know I've taken that a bit far!)

I'm glad beetroot / nitrate is in his list of effective supplements as that's one that I'm fully behind; I always have a litre of it ready for key race days and whilst it might be a placebo it might also work for me. But its cheap, entirely "natural" and quite tasty, so it appeals to me. Actually, so is caffiene but I drink a lot of coffee anyway!
SPR
SPR
Oct 2022
2:02pm, 11 Oct 2022
38,491 posts
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SPR
Larkim - Yes re beta alanine. It's like baking soda (and beetroot?) in terms of buffering for lactic and that is useful for MD. It's a while since I looked and research may have changed but the idea was to load for a month up to key races IIRC. I may have even read about it first in a BMC magazine.

Re supplements, can't really say people shouldn't take them and just like food, there should be reasonable ways to reduce risk of contamination.

If someone test positive on something signed off by Informed Sport, I'd be a bit more worried that you can never be sure.
fuzzyduck79
fuzzyduck79
Oct 2022
2:03pm, 11 Oct 2022
1,366 posts
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fuzzyduck79
Caffeine was on the banned list once upon a time. You can imagine the carnage that ensued before they dropped that.

It's still an issue though, many youth coaches make their teams drink caffeine energy drinks before matches/races to boost performance, and it's widespread in the US from what I can tell.

thepitchisours.com

There's some caveats about not taking it with alcohol, and that it shouldn't be sold to under 12s but basically that article is making a case for using Red Bull to enhance performance, with fuzzy asides about taking the "right amount"

If you understand a little about cardiac risk in the young and the effects of ingesting very high amounts of sugar/inflammation and long term damage to arteries, I don't think you could end up giving the thumbs up to any of that

About This Thread

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A thread to discuss any interesting stories or developments in elite athletics.

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If you enjoy watching athletics why not have a go yourself? If you have any questions about how to go about doing that, ask on the Track & Field Fetchies thread. Someone is bound to be able to help:

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