USADA Suspends Mark Block for ten years, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

In articles published in Athletics Weekly on Friday, USADA suspended agent & coach Mark Block, for his involvement with the BALCO drug scandal. USADA is suspending Block from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2019. Per the article in AW, cited Block for supplying drugs to his wife, 2001 Edmonton 100 meter champion Zhanna Block and trying to hide his actions from USADA.

BALCO founder, Victor Conte, the former bass player for Tower of Power, and a part time nutritionist, and a tax cheat as well as a drug cheat, named Zhanna Block as one of the athletes he supplied “the cream” and “the clear”. Conte has assisted USADA and WADA, after being backed against the wall, and now seems to be a source on anything drug related. (Sometimes, I think that Mr. Conte sure likes seeing himself on the TV or quoted in various media).

Mr. Block is the twenty-fourth person indited by USADA over the BALCO affair. For more on the story, please read: http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/mark-block-given-10-year-ban/

What continues to confound this writer is how USADA continues to use
means that may be as pernicious as the drug cheats and drug suppliers.
Hear-say, accusations from people who have everything to gain from
accusing someone of drug use, evidence that may not hold up in any court
around the world, and peer reviews on illicit drugs that would not pass
a true peer review, those things all concern me. Do not get me wrong, I
want USADA and WADA to succeed, I just want them to up their game.

Just the hint of drug use taints our sport. Someone jumps, throws or runs well, and someone thinks it has to be drugs.

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COLORADO
SPRINGS (USA): USADA announced that Mark Block, a coach and agent in
the sport of track and field, has received a 10- year suspension from
an independent three-member American Arbitration Association (AAA)
panel for violating sport anti-doping rules. Block’s sanction resulted
from evidence directly connected to the Bay Area Laboratory
Cooperative (BALCO) drug conspiracy directed by Victor Conte. The
sanction was imposed for Block’s participation in the trading and
trafficking of prohibited substances including “the cream” and “the
clear”, as well as inciting and assisting others in the use of those
substances. Writes USADA in an official release. Block’s ban takes
effect January 1, 2009 and will continue until 2019

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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