Usain Bolt just beat his world record with 9.58

[C.O.Prodigy]

i always thought ben johnson's record should have stood. steroids or not.

That's a good point actually. I also thought that the sport was set back by many years by annuling that record. But still it's fair that it didn't stand.

[SlavikSvensk]

the rules say you can't take PEDs and compete. you break 'em, you have only yourself to blame.

[C.O.Prodigy]

it's not a feat of human ability at that point, it's a feat of technology.

Well not entirely, the muscles and limbs and brains are still that of the athlete. If two athletes take the same drug one will win over the other and that victory is down to the athletes ability.

But I know what you mean and in order for it to be called sport it must be "clean". And I agree.

[C.O.Prodigy]

been. and probably loads more that are just clever enough to not get caught. tbh, at this point, i wouldn't be shocked to hear anyone is...

I'm positive that Kobe Bryant is.
Ok 99% positive.

[SlavikSvensk]

who knows anymore? maybe everyone is.

the only american sport where they really test rigorously is (american) football, and evne then people do it...they just have a higher likelihood of being caught than in the other pro sports.

[DarkYoung]

the rules say you can't take PEDs and compete. you break 'em, you have only yourself to blame.

maybe they should drug test djs?

same principle.

[C.O.Prodigy]

who knows anymore? maybe everyone is.

Maybe. But accomplishments should be praised rather then rigorously tested. If we frown upon world records, then how would the sport evolve without them?

I give Usain the benefit of the doubt like I did with Marion. Time will tell, but for what he has accomplished he doesn't really deserve unfair scrutiny.

[C.O.Prodigy]

IAAF says men’s 100 meters at world championships has no positive doping cases

All athletes clean from men’s 100 meters at worlds

BERLIN — The IAAF has announced that there were no positive doping cases in the men’s 100 meters, the marquee event of the world championships.

Steeplechaser Jamal Chatbi of Morocco is the only positive athlete of the championships so far after more than 600 tests were analyzed.

Usain Bolt won the men’s 100 in a world record time of 9.58 seconds, beating Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.

This is an official (IAAF) statement, and since zie germans don't make those kind of mistakes I guess that's pretty cool.

[SlavikSvensk]

not a question of mistakes. it's a question of having the right tests and whether or not people can evade being caught. remember, there is no test for HGH, even though it's a banned substance. so while a negative test result helps, it doesn't close the book. actually i don't know if the book can ever be closed anymore, for anyone.

to give an example why, marion jones was tested and passed every time. she was only caught because they found her name on a BALCO invoice...seven years later. one of the many things BALCO specialized in was teaching clients how to test negative even when they were positive.

it's all a bit of a conspiracy theory, of course, and has some of the worst aspects of a conspiracy theory in it--zero proof, circumstantial argument, denies validity of any proof to the contrary, etc. but of course i'm not claiming that it is the truth...only that i'm suspicious in this case and have a bad feeling that evidence will eventually emerge validating that bad feeling.

[C.O.Prodigy]

to give an example why, marion jones was tested and passed every time. she was only caught because they found her name on a BALCO invoice...seven years later. one of the many things BALCO specialized in was teaching clients how to test negative even when they were positive.

Well that only goes to show how American sprinting has had a shadow of infamy cast over it and how it has lost it's influence in the 100m event.

Jamaican sprinting on the other hand has risen to it's highest highs and shouldn't really be dragged down with the ship or even but in the same boat as the other offenders.

Although saying that, Tyson Gay has nothing to do with anything wrong about the sport. He has run the race of his life and has set a new national record which he should be proud of. But American sprinting isn't the best in the world anymore.

The way history will remember it is that Bolt won the race by the same margin as he did in Bejing (blowing away the opposition) and that Gay ran a time 0.2 slower then the then world record of 9.69.

I think that this is just Bolt's style, and that he should be praised. I doubt that any such evidence will reveal itself. Something I doubt about other "conspiracies".

[SlavikSvensk]

well, there are actually quite a few open questions about jamaican sprinting. first, many experts have pointed out that jamaica has one of the least adequate testing regimes in place of any national olympic committee. second, there's really nothing stopping jamaican splinters from using the exact same performance enhancement companies as american (or other) athletes.

interestingly, it was a jamaican track coach--trevor graham--who first exposed BALCO, after being beset by guilt over his own role in bringing marion jones and tim montgomery to BALCO.

this kind of sums it u nicely

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/more-s...5875-21607271/

It's not that I believe he's a cheat. In fact, I desperately want to believe he isn't a cheat. I want to believe he's a freak of nature, just like everyone who has a vested interest in the sport is asking us to do.

I want to believe that his dominance is a product of what everyone's saying: that he's the first really tall bloke who ever wanted to run the 100m.

I know there are people who will say that my inability to glory in Bolt's superhuman feats is a sad symptom of a mind warped by cynicism.

Those people may be right but to me those who shrieked their delight with unfettered credulity when Bolt crossed the line in Berlin are like battered wives going back to an abusive husband.

Haven't we been burned too many times before to leap back into the arms of the sprint kings quite so soon? Have we not learned anything from the last 20 years? Little more than a year ago, one leading athletics writer was pointing out that the credibility of 100m sprinting was "gossamer thin".

Now, notwithstanding the fact that five Jamaican athletes were caught up in a drugs controversy days before the World Championships, we are supposed to believe we are witnessing a golden age in the event.

I'm not sure. When I heard the commentators on 5Live squealing that what Bolt had done was "absolutely beyond belief", I wondered if they realised what they had just said.

[DarkYoung]

well i think he is a living legend.

he's an excellent role model for children across the world.

[C.O.Prodigy]

well i think he is a living legend.
.

+1

[SlavikSvensk]

if he's not juicing, then yes, he's a legend.

if he is, then he's just another cheater.

[C.O.Prodigy]

if he's not juicing, then yes, he's a legend.

if he is, then he's just another cheater.

What does this sound so bitter? sour grapes are in the air - I feel

If it's bitter, then they are sour grapes.
If it's not, then I'm totally of the mark.

[C.O.Prodigy]

What does this sound so bitter?

Why does it sound bitter, not what... typo... sorry .. it's Why.

[SlavikSvensk]

i guess i'm just bitter about the doping culture and what it's done to sport. we live in an age when far more athletes are doping than are being caught for doping...FACT. yet, sheep that we are, we naively assume every time a new hero emerges that somehow, someway, this fella has done it all au natural. but let me give an example...

you follow baseball, right? if so, then you know then that it wasn't long ago all the baseball commentators were saying things like "barry bonds and all these juicers are ruining the sport. just makes what a-rod has accomplished without any drugs all the more impressive." no matter who made the news for juicing, at least there was still good ol' hard working a-rod!

then it's revealed a-rod was also on the juice.

worse for me were the revelations that two of the guys that finally brought a championship back to boston (manny ramirez and david ortiz) failed a drug test in 2003, which major league baseball then hushed up. for people from new england, winning that championship was unreal. something the region had waited 88 years for. tainted for ever. that was the final straw for me.

so guess i'd say i'm too cynical to believe the hype at the moment...

[DarkYoung]

i'm really looking forward to his next race. i hope he can keep on breaking his record, and get to 9.4!!

what an achievement.

[C.O.Prodigy]

i guess i'm just bitter about the doping culture and what it's done to sport. we live in an age when far more athletes are doping than are being caught for doping...FACT. yet, sheep that we are, we naively assume every time a new hero emerges that somehow, someway, this fella has done it all au natural. but let me give an example...

you follow baseball, right? if so, then you know then that it wasn't long ago all the baseball commentators were saying things like "barry bonds and all these juicers are ruining the sport. just makes what a-rod has accomplished without any drugs all the more impressive." no matter who made the news for juicing, at least there was still good ol' hard working a-rod!

then it's revealed a-rod was also on the juice.

worse for me were the revelations that two of the guys that finally brought a championship back to boston (manny ramirez and david ortiz) failed a drug test in 2003, which major league baseball then hushed up. for people from new england, winning that championship was unreal. something the region had waited 88 years for. tainted for ever. that was the final straw for me.

so guess i'd say i'm too cynical to believe the hype at the moment...

Fair enough mate.

And yup Baseball is in the dumps or was in the dumps for a long time. I started watching it again anyway, I guess that for what it's worth there are guys who just like to crush the ball and to steal the base and to talk baseball and to play baseball for themselves.
I totally understand about Boston, Kevin Youkilis can never replace Manny. Plus the dodgers are in first place and Manny again somehow plays for your home team, since now you are in LA.
I get where you are coming from and why you are so gutted. I started watching again cause I love baseball and cause of guys like Rafael Furcal and Ichiro Suzuki, Nelson Cruz, younger guys who seem to love the sport and the technique more then the muscle and the long ball. Again saying that Nelson Cruz was in the HR derby final but he is not a big guy. Baseball is bigger then juicing, and I only figured that out when I started playing baseball with some enthusiasts in my home town. When you start playing you start watching it differently also. Before I also couldn't stand to watch it, so yes I understand your cynicism. I talk to much....

[Will]

The guy who came in second would have gotten the world record also. That's a bitch to run the race of your life only to get beaten like that and by a guy who let up at the end. Bolt is indeed the man. I just hope he isn't on the juice and hiding it.

He'd have just missed out on the world record.