by Alfonz Juck
Gatlin international opener in Japan
KAWASAKI (JPN): Prodigious Japanese sprinters Yoshihide Kiryu and Abdul Hakim Sani will meet for the first time over 100m at the Golden Grand Prix in Kawasaki on 8 May (IAAF World Challenge) but the overwhelming favourite is former world 100m record-holder Justin Gatlin. For him first international race of the season. Also in the field Chinese record holder Su Bingtian. Sprinters Kenji Fujimitsu and Kei Takase are scheduled for the 200 m and top Japanese Chisato Fukushima for women 100 m. From IAAF.
Larry Eder opines:
Justin Gatlin has taken more vitriol from media, especially British media, than any athlete in modern memory. Gatlin has never noted he was a saint, but he did note that he has paid his time, per IAAF rules. He has gotten upset a few times, but, put yourself in his sweatsuit. Would you have fared any better?
I disliked immensely the term “drug cheat” used in front of anyone’s name who tests positive. It is just a moniker that, in light, especially of the recent allegations that a British doctor has been dispensing ” age enhancement therapy” to one hundred plus athletes, with the UKA’s knowledge, seems a bit disengenious.
Justin Gatlin will always deal with the drug positives he has recieved. The first, I still believe is a bit of a joke, as it was for Attention Deficit Disorder.
The point is, Justin Gatlin was caught, and everything he does is suspect, and he knows tat. Gatlin continues to draw fans everywhere he goes, that is the fact that meet directors acknowledge when they invite Mr. Gatlin to their meets.
It is right? I am not sure.
I think that we are at a crossroads. Either we take drug testing seriously and fund it, or we just give it up. Right now, the system does not work. Some drugs are banned that were used for a dozen years by both the sick and the elite. Not sure what that is about.
It seems, sometimes that the only people interested in doping controversy are in British media and German media.
