Kritik und Anregungen » a disillusioned drug-

Chris Clarke, a 26-year-old British sprinter, failed to qualify for his countrys national team and didnt get to go to the 2016 Olympics. But his Rio dreams were far from over.Clarke said he couldnt wallow in self-pity for long. So he teamed up with Libby Clegg, a visually impaired sprinter and the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic silver medalist in the 100-meter T12 division (the divisions are based on the runners level of visual impairment) and switched his focus to becoming her guide runner.Visually impaired sprinters race with a guide, who is attached to them with a band at the wrist or hand. The guides role is to provide everything a runner with vision has, from informing the runner how far they are on the track, to where they are in comparison to other racers or what they must do to win. Needless to say, the guides role is a crucial one.Clegg and Clarke both train at Loughborough High Performance Athletic Center in the U.K. and have known each other for six years. But it wasnt until February that Clegg asked Clarke whether he would be interested in becoming her new guide. She had recently parted ways with guide Mikhail Huggins and had lost funding from the British government after a series of injuries, so it was a time of transition for Clegg. She needed someone she could trust completely to be her eyes on the track.It turned out to one of the best decisions either of them had ever made. The lightning-quick duo won gold in the 100-meter and 200-meter races in the T11 category this month in the Paralympic Games.But their journey wasnt as easy as the end results might indicate.Guide runners are connected to their Paralympian by a band at their hands, and they essentially must become mirror images of each other. That meant Clarke had to undergo a number of adjustments. From the positioning of his legs off the blocks to losing the freedom of one hand to the length of his stride, everything felt foreign to the seasoned sprinter.?Ive been conditioned all these years to run out of the blocks a certain way and how to run a certain way, Clarke said by phone from his home in England. Getting the timing of it was tough, too, because I cant just burst out of the blocks like I normally do. It just took time to learn how to be respondent to how she comes out of the blocks and how quick she is. And it was tough with my stride; at first it felt like I was barely lifting my knees up.Clarke also initially struggled guiding Clegg through the bend in the 200 meter. Im slightly twisted, her hand goes toward the inside of the track, so that takes my hand back and Im always twisting, he said.It took almost two months of training together for it to feel natural to Clarke, who was a bronze medalist in the 4x400m relay at the 2010 Indoor World Championships. Still, Clarke said their first race together, at an open meet at Loughborough, was awful. Clocking in at 13.05 in the 100 meters, the pair knew they had a lot of work to do to reach the podium in Rio.In addition to his own training, Clarke began working with Clegg two to three times a week. And after he failed to qualify for the Olympics, they started training every day.It helped me get over it, he said.?I just went right back to training with Libby, and it gave me something to focus on. It kept me happy. I just wanted to help her with her goals.The pairing started to feel increasingly comfortable, and Clarke improved his in-race communication with Clegg -- a foreign concept for an able-bodied sprinter, but necessary for athletes without vision to know where they are and what they need to do.Soon after, Clegg was reclassified to T11 from T12 because of her deteriorating vision. The change required her to wear a blindfold to prevent her from using her little remaining sight. It was a big adjustment, one she called terrifying. Even so, in their first race in the T11 division, at the IPC Grand Prix in July, the pair not only won the 200 meters but broke a world record with a time of 24.44 seconds. Clegg was then named to her third British Paralympic team, and the pair began preparing for Rio.While everything seemed to be going their way, their time in Brazil was anything but smooth initially. In the semifinal run of the 100 meters, they appeared to set a world-record time of 11.91 seconds. But they were later disqualified after a fellow runner alleged Clarke had illegally pulled Clegg during the race. They immediately appealed but were forced to wait out their fate for several hours.?I felt horrible, Clarke said. Libby was just like, Dont worry about it. Whatever happens, happens. She was really nice about it, but I was a total wreck for that hour or two.Ultimately, the decision was reversed and they were reinstated. With something to prove, Clegg and Clarke won the final later that same day and took home their first gold medal.Just days later, they would go on to win the gold in the 200 meters -- again, not without controversy. This time, however, they werent involved. Crowd favorite Terezinha Guilhermina of Brazil and her guide Rafael Lazarini were disqualified for a false start.Although Clarke has competed at world championships, European championships and several other elite races, he calls his Paralympic experience the coolest thing hes ever done. And most importantly, he values the chance to help a friend achieve her dreams. It felt so good, he said.Ive known Libby for a long time, and Ive known the last year hasnt been that great for her. It was just rewarding to see hard work pay off. It was an amazing feeling to be a part of that and to help her achieve what she wanted to achieve.After returning to London to a heros welcome at Heathrow Airport, where hundreds of people were waiting to greet them on Sept. 20, Clarke is now just trying to catch up on sleep. The pair has briefly discussed attempting to do it all again for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, where Clarke hopes to compete in the Olympics, as well, but nothing is certain. They plan to compete together in next summers world championships in London.That would be an awesome chance for Libby to compete here at home, he said. Ill try to go on this journey as long as shell have me. And hopefully she wont upgrade me in a year or two! Cincinnati Reds Shirts . The Brazilian goalkeeper signed a loan deal with the Major League Soccer club on Friday as he looks to get playing time ahead of this summers World Cup in his home country. Cincinnati Reds Store . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. https://www.cheapredsjerseys.us/ . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. Cincinnati Reds Pro Shop . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. Fake Reds Jerseys MOSCOW -- Russias doping cover-up went far beyond the Olympics, according to a vast archive of emails released by a World Anti-Doping Agency investigator.Besides the 12 medal winners from the 2014 Winter Olympics whose samples were supposedly tampered with, messages show a system which covered up drug use by blind athletes and children as young as 15.In 2015, a year after the Olympics, Russias top doping scientist, Grigory Rodchenkov, complained that the scheme Richard McLaren termed the disappearing positive methodology had grown so large it was covering for doping -- and apparent abuse of power -- in disabled sports.Five blind athletes in powerlifting, a form of weightlifting, had tested positive for the banned steroid methandienone at the same training camp. Rodchenkov suspected unscrupulous coaches eager for medals were doping the athletes without their knowledge.Its a disgrace, Rodchenkov wrote to Alexei Velikodny of Russian states Sports Training Center. The coaches were picking on the blind (who) cant even see what people are giving them.A year earlier, the records show Velikodny issuing a save order for a 15-year-old competitor in track and field -- the instruction which meant a failed test was reported as negative.The young athlete -- one of the most promising juniors in Russia at the time -- was flagged up as a Crimean athlete in the emails, a distinction which may have helped him avoid a ban after testing positive for marijuana. It was May 2015, two months after Russias annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and a failed test at one of the first competitions in Russia featuring Crimeans could have been embarrassing.McLarens report alleges more than 1,000 Russian athletes benefited from a cover-up scheme administered by government officials and Rodchenkov, the Moscow lab director who later fled Russia and turned his emails over to WADA. Following criticism that his intermediate report in July lacked evidence to back up its claims, McLarens full investigation is accompanied by a website containing thousands of pages of documents including years of emails, charts listing hundreds of suppressed tests and copious photographs of urine sample bottles with telltale scratches that McLaren says indicate they were tampered with.None of the writers of the emails responded to requests for comment. However, the Russian authorities have not disputed the content of the messages. Some of the authors have been suspended from their jobs, as was then-Deputy Sports Minister Yuri Nagornykh, who was placed on leave in the summer and resigned in October.The emails show a deeply corrupt system, with lab staff worried about their industrial-scale doping cover-up being exposed while they faced pressure from ambitious officials to save more top Russian athletes from doping scandals. Even Rodchenkov struggled to keep pace with the sheer scale of Russian doping.In early March 2014, shortly after the Sochi Olympics had finished with Russia at the top of the medals table, Rodchenkov remained under pressure.By his own admission, Rodchenkov had spent Russias home Winter Olympics swapping dirty samples in the dead of night in the temporary Olympic laboratory in Sochi, covering for up to 12 medal winners whose samples appear to have been tampered with, according to the McLaren report.Still, running the Sochi lab ahead of the Paralympics later in March, Rodchenkov was trying to hide his deceptions from the numerous foreign experts drafted in to ensure the lab ran smoothly. That didnt stop him from coming under state pressure to cover uup more cases, emails leaked by Rodchenkov and published by McLaren show.dddddddddddd cant ignore OBVIOUSLY POSITIVE samples in front of everybody, he wrote to the Sports Training Centers Velikodny. That was in response to a message asking Rodchenkov to cover for nine track and field competitors shortly before the world indoor championships in Poland that month.Six athletes could be saved, but Rodchenkov insisted three particularly egregious cases couldnt be covered up. The athletes who gave them were now corpses who cant be brought back to life.Two months later Rodchenkov was again exasperated, telling Velikodny to get track and field together and give them a final warning. Theyve lost all fear. They should all just be banned already.Velikodnys response: I agree!The Russian track team would be banned by the end of the year, though not in the way Rodchenkov had envisioned. A World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into the team was already underway and would publish a damning report in November 2015, causing tracks governing body to suspend Russia from all international competition, eventually including the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.The email archive contains hundreds of pages of messages, mostly between Rodchenkov and Velikodny, with occasional cameos from junior lab staff, drug-testing officials and Nataliya Zhelanova, who was anti-doping adviser to Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko. Mentions of Mutko and his deputy Nagornykh are limited to initials, making their direct involvement difficult to prove.Russias cover-up was vast, with more than 1,000 athletes estimated to have been included. The sheer size was key to its success, giving the impression of an active, fully-functioning anti-doping system which in some years collected more samples than any other country, only to make positive tests vanish in the lab.That size also meant involving many people at various level of the state sports system, a liability which was devastatingly exposed when a husband-and-wife team of whistleblowers -- one an athlete on steroids, the other a disillusioned drug-test agency worker -- went public in 2014 with damning, yet only partial, revelations about the system. That, in turn, led to the WADA reports which exposed the labs deepest secrets.While covering for stars, officials routinely allowed obscure athletes to be banned in order to keep up the appearance of an efficient drug-testing system. Athletes well-being was almost never discussed. Despite repeated cases involving GW1516, a substance not considered fit for human consumption because of repeated cancer cases in animal testing, none of the emails contain any suggestions of discouraging its use.The archive has its flaws, though. Documents from the Sochi Olympics themselves are notable by their absence -- Rodchenkov has previously said he received instructions about the games in face-to-face meetings with Nagornykh, the deputy sports minister, and a handler from the FSB security service. Many documents are only available in the original Russian, or only in the English translation. Athletes names have been redacted but enough details of their competitive records remain that its possible to deduce many identities.The writers certainly knew the risk if their emails were ever made public.In November 2013, three months before the Olympics, Rodchenkov issued an order that Russian officials may wish he, too, had followed: Delete all messages urgently! ' ' '