by Deji Ogeyingbo
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Meeting de Lieven, photo courtesy of Meeting de Lieven
Marcell Jacobs, Meeting de Lieven, photo by Meeting de Lieven
This is a new piece from Deji Ogeyingbo, Deji’s Doodles. Deji will comment on happenings in athletics during the prior week.
Okagbare’s doping ban, Ingebrigtsen is now a world record holder, Jacobs doesn’t look like dethroning Coleman.
It was another fun week in the world of athletics with the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold providing for exhilarating track and field action in Lievin as Norwegian distance runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen took almost half a second off the world indoor 1500m record, and Blessing Okagbare was banned by the athletics integrity unit. Elsewhere, Marcell Jacobs made it three wins out of three over the 60m, while NN running has confirmed that Eluid Kipchoge will be running the Tokyo Marathon.
The end of an era for Blessing Okagbare after her 10-year doping ban?
Blessing Okagbare, photo by World Athletics
On Friday, February 18, the Disciplinary Committee of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) confirmed that Nigerian sprinter, Blessing Okagbare has been handed a 10-year doping ban. The former World Championships Silver medalist was initially suspended in July after a failed test for human growth hormone and also tested positive for blood-booster EPO in Nigeria in June.
Let’s make things clear: Since the formation of the Athletics Integrity Unit in 2017, there have been over 190 convictions of drug cases. And these include big stars and World Champions, not including prominent cases under appeal to the court of arbitration for sports.
World Athletics devotes 12% of its budget, around 7 million dollars a year, to the AIU. It allows the AIU to have nine staff in intelligence and investigations, eight in testing, five in case management, and two each in education and admin.
The numbers might make for bad publicity, but it just means Track and field aren’t paying lip service to catch cheats, hence their stance on Blessing Okagbare. The Nigerian, who is 33, can still appeal the ban, but honestly, it’s a long shot. If she takes that route and it doesn’t’ come out well, it means her career is effectively over.
For someone who carried Nigerian athletics on her shoulders by performing consistently at the top for almost 15 years, it is sadly, an end to an era.
To read AIU decision, please click here: https://twitter.com/deji_oges/status/1494689243108495361?s=20&t=idj69aHsMfJWWIbRaJmm_Q
Jakob Ingebrigtsen has been a thorn in the flesh of the Kenyans…and now Ethiopians.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, WR 1,500m, 3:30.60, photo by Meeting de Lieven
A few months back, I had written about the incredible rise of Jakob Ingebrigtsen here, as it was just only a matter of time before the numbers come crumbling at his feet. The Norwegian had won numerous continental titles while still a teenager. Olympic gold in a European record time at the age of 20, as well as a European Championship title at 19. And now, at the age of 21, Jakob Ingebrigtsen can call himself a world record-holder.
He has now etched his name in sporting history as he blazed to a new World Record of 3:30.60 to win the men’s 1500m World indoor Tour Gold meet in Lievin on Thursday. It has always been in the bag and it was rather fitting he displayed such pure racing by dethroning Ethiopian Samuel Tefera as the record holder.
This is coming on the backdrop of taking the Olympic Gold off Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot in Tokyo six months back. It would be interesting to see how he tackles Hicham El Guerrouj’s record of 3:26.00 outdoors, a record that has stood since July 1998.
To read Deji’s earlier piece on Jakob Ingebrigtsen, just click here: https://www.runblogrun.com/2021/11/jakob-ingebrigtsen-is-nearly-unstoppable-right-nowhow-amazing-is-his-athletic-rise.html
Marcell Jacobs doesn’t look like dethroning Coleman
Marcell Jacobs, photo by Meeting de Lieven
Three races and three wins for European 60m Champion Marcell Jacobs. 6.51 in Germany, 6.49 in Poland, and 6.50 in France. Granted, he is the Olympic Champion, but his wins so far haven’t been all that convincing, especially looking at the potential competitors he would have to face going in the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade next month.
Christian Coleman, 2022 Millrose Games, photo by Jeff Benjamin
Topping that list is Christian Coleman. The American who just returned from a doping ban has only one race under his belt this year, one he glaringly cantered through to win in 6.49. Coleman holds the World record with his 6.34 from 2018, and amongst the lots, he still looks like the only athlete that is in that 6.3 shape.
In fact, the trials to select the American team are on a different level, with the likes of Trayvon Bromell and Ronnie baker all in the mix, too.
Don’t expect Eluid Kipchoge to take down the marathon World Record in Tokyo.
Eliud Kipchoge, photo by NN Running team
On Friday, the NN running team confirmed that Marathon great, Eluid Kipchoge will take on the course in Tokyo in March for the first time under the auspices of a marathon major. He has clinched victory in London, Berlin, and Chicago and wants to add Tokyo to that bucket list.
The thing is, we all know his capabilities over the 42.2km distance, and winning is already entrenched in his fiber. However, after becoming the first man to break the two-hour barrier at an unofficial race in Austria in 2019, the world has been craving for him to replicate it in an official race.
The course record is 2:03:58, a time Wilson Kipsang set in 2017. For him and his team, that would be the more realistic goal for now, as he gets himself ready for the new season.
Only Grant Holloway can stop himself
Grant Holloway, unstoppable object, 2022 Muller Indoor GP, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Unstoppable object, immovable force…call it either and you won’t be wrong. Grant Holloway is in a world of his own in the hurdles at this point. His times and results are just startling. And like World athletics alluded to, he has not lost a 60mH race in the 43 times he has done so.
Maybe Mondo Duplantis in the Pole Vault comes close to such dominance, but this is on another level from Holloway. In Lievin, he went throw the motions to win in 7.35, yet another sub-7.4s. There certainly is no stopping this man and it would take a monumental disaster for him to be usurped. Until then, let’s all savor in his beauty he delivers every race.
