Skip to main content

Systematic Russian doping

If there's any integrity left in sport, then Russia should be booted out of every Olympic sport and possibly more based on the revelations in a German TV documentary this week. Government-funded programmes, cover ups, ultimatums to athletes that they simply won't be good enough or picked without cheating....

The translated transcript from WDR is now available - 'Top-secret Doping: How Russia makes its Winners'

From the BBC Doping: Russia doping allegations on German TV prompt WADA investigation

The Guardian: Russia accused of athletics doping cover-up on German TV

ABC: Russian anti-doping agency will wait for official censure before investigating claims of doping

Follow the timeline of @heywoodu for a lengthy series of tweets detailing the information on the documentary, and the fallout since. Here are just a few:






Is it even anything knew? The Mail on Sunday tried to bust this open over a year ago - SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Drugs, bribery and the cover-up!

So who's going to cop the brunt of this - Russia? Does anyone really have the balls to stand up to them? The Russian Anti-Doping Agency intends to investigate itself - that's going to be as useless as FIFA investigating itself!

Russia probes systematic doping

In three years' time, will we return to the era of the Berlin Wall, when specialist events are held in Russia because nobody else will play with them, and they won't even bother to waste time drug testing anyone?

The last time I blogged about a Russian doping scandal, I received a pile of abusive comments, all from Russia defending their cheating ways. And that's why comments are now more stringently regulated. Do they plan on defending this one with their deluded diatribe?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also,

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur