Jesse Squire | On 15, Jan 2014

Last June, former 100 meter world record holder Asafa Powell tested positive for a banned stimulant (oxilofrine). His hearing in front of an anti-doping panel began yesterday and continued today. It has been interesting to say the least.

Besides Powell, the main character is physiotherapist Chris Xuereb, who supplied Powell with such a galaxy of “supplements” that the sprinter couldn’t remember all of them when it came to fill out forms declaring what he was taking. Powell blames the supplement Epiphany D1 for his positive test, which he took that morning. Xuereb, who Sherone Simpson also recently blamed for her positive test (and for the same substance), maintains that he did nothing wrong and is being scapegoated by MVP club coach Stephen Francis.

The whole thing is beginning to seem like an episode of “Law and Order: Anti-Doping Agency”. Powell appears remarkably foolish, stating that he wasn’t aware of WADA regulations and that he trusted Google alone to determine if these supplements were safe. Both Powell and Simpson (in her hearing last week) said they “forgot” to list the same supplement, Epiphany D1. Today Powell testified that Xuereb injected him on multiple occasions as treatment for a hamstring injury.

The story is not over yet.

Links

The House of Run‘s Jason and Kevin take four minutes to discuss record chases by Galen Rupp and Mary Cain, the just-announce London marathon field, Kenenisa Bekele running the Paris marathon and the supplements.
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News

Runner’s World’s Morning Report has all of yesterday’s news.

One of the first Nike prototypes, made in 1971 or ’72, sold for $1500 to a collector who runs the ShoeZeum. It was found years ago by Tom Bowerman, son of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, while clearing a trash pile.
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Toronto mayor Rob Ford is skeptical about spending $1 million on exploring a 2024 Olympic bid. Feel free to make your own joke about Ford and WADA, drug testing, and so forth.
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The IAAF’s Jon Mulkeen has compiled the top 100 women’s all-around sprinters (100, 200 and 400 meters). Two of the top ten are still active: Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross.
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Jon Gugala is the master of the runner profile. Here he takes a look at Tennessee resident Scott Wietecha, an elementary teacher and 2:18 runner who will look to imrove (yet again) in Sunday’s Houston marathon.
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Race announcements…
The Millrose Games (February 15) will have multi-event stars Ashton Eaton, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, and Trey Hardee. Eaton and Hardee will do the 60 hurdles and pole vault, Theisen-Eaton will do the 60 hurdles and long jump.
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The Ottawa 10k (May 24) will have Geoffrey Mutai, the unofficial marathon world record holder.
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Speaking of Millrose, this isn’t exactly new but very cool. The Armory is raffling off eight prizes in connection with the Millrose Games to raise funds for its Armory College Prep academic program. All are cool and unique, but I’m going to guess that “A Beer with Nick Symmonds” is the best seller.
More from the Millrose Games

Today is the 30th anniversary of Sergey Bubka‘s first world record. I don’t know if we’ll get this kind of notification for anniversaries of his 34 other world records.
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What to watch

Chariots of Fire, the 1981 Oscar winner for Best Picture, will be on at 3:55am tomorrow on HBO Family Channel.

Video of the day

Noting the Bubka anniversary, here is a compilation of eleven of his outdoor world records.