Sh1t is about to hit the fan in Irish athletics

fiddy3

If what I hear tonight is confirmed, expect an Irish athlete to hit the headlines very soon for all the wrong reasons.

tunney

fiddy3 wrote: »

If what I hear tonight is confirmed, expect an Irish athlete to hit the headlines very soon for all the wrong reasons.

Dope test? Haven' seen anything yet?????

myflipflops

Had made a joke here but do not want anyones name wrongly associated with this in any way

fiddy3

It's not a joke at all, and it's not good news, that's all i'll say for now until it's confirmed.

promethius

when would you imagine this will hit the press etc?

Woddle

Mod note
There is to be absolutely no speculation on who the athlete might be, reputations are at stake here.

myflipflops

No comment, see the article.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0114/1224310245957.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

AN O'RIORDAN, Athletics Correspondent

AN IRISH athlete and potential London Olympic qualifier is facing a two-year suspension for a doping offence in what could prove another costly blow to the credibility of the sport.

Martin Fagan, a 28-year-old marathon runner from Mullingar, was informed by Athletics Ireland of an “adverse analytical finding”, the technical term for a positive drugs test.

Fagan is due to attend an adjudication hearing in Dublin on Monday to explain why traces of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin were found in the A-sample of an out-of-competition doping test taken at his US training base in December.

Fagan may now request to have the B-sample tested in order to back up the initial finding, although sources last night indicated there was likely to be a more immediate outcome to the matter.

Athletics Ireland declined to comment on any details of the case as it is still under due procedure, but one spokesperson indicated Fagan had a “serious” case to answer.

Erythropoietin, better known as EPO, is one of the most common, although largely outdated, methods of performance enhancing, first made notorious in cycling in the 1990s.

Fagan has no previous record of doping offences or suspicions of such. He has struggled with both form and consistency and debilitating injuries since qualifying for the Olympic marathon in Beijing almost four years ago.

In January 2008 Fagan ran two hours, 14 minutes and six seconds in the Dubai marathon – inside the necessary 2:15.00 for Beijing, and a time that still ranks as the 14th fastest Irish marathon of all time. He dropped out of the Olympic marathon through injury, shortly before halfway, and has failed to finish a marathon since.

He has been based at the highaltitude training venue in Flagstaff, Arizona, since 2007 and it was there the out-of-competition test took place. Fagan had been targeting the 2:15.00 that would have qualified him for the London Olympic marathon, and ran well in the Chicago marathon last October, where he appeared on course for about 2:12.00, before suddenly dropping out inside the final mile.

Fagan had next targeted tomorrow’s Houston marathon, in Texas, which is being staged alongside the US Olympic marathon trial.

Fagan last raced in Ireland at the National Track and Field Championships in Santry in August, when he led in the early stages of the 10,000m, before dropping out. He received an Irish Sports Council grant of €12,000 in the international category in 2009, and again in 2010.

Fagan was unavailable for comment last night.

TJC

Jesus....

runjb

Irish Times seem to be all over it alright!

A second article, quite similar to above:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0114/1224310245784.html

Pisco Sour

Utterly disgusted, sickened and betrayed! :mad:

jeffontour

It's pretty disappointing isn't it. I wouldn't follow the scene as closely as some on here but this kind of thing only serves to make me less likely to so.

I suppose all we can do is hope anyone who is going to London, regardless of event, is clean and has a good games. Better this is found now than at the games.

Bally8

Aaaaah nooo! I was hoping he had his issues from Chicago sorted out and would run the qualifying time no problem. Any chance its all a mistake? No matter what happens now anyway his repution is ruined. Gutted:(

MrCreosote

"Largely outdated form of performance enhancement"?

Yeah right...

Getonwithit

Very sad.

Pisco Sour

jeffontour wrote: »

It's pretty disappointing isn't it. I wouldn't follow the scene as closely as some on here but this kind of thing only serves to make me less likely to so.

Ah no, don't say that. Martin Fagan, Cathal Lombard and Geraldine Hendricken shouldn't spoil things for the rest of our very talented, hard working, dedicated and most importantly CLEAN athletes. Ireland has a very good record with regards anti-doping in track and field. There hasn't been very many scandels and the internal anti-doping system is top notch. If the Russians, Chinese, Americans, etc etc all did what ourselves and the Brits do then you would see a hell of a lot more Irish medals and finalists at major global and continental championships.

Don't let a few bad apples ruin your opinion of the sport in Ireland.

TheRoadRunner

Just looking at his coaches twitter account and there seems to be a little more to the story than just a failed test. It seems he is holding his hands up. All speculation I guess until the full story comes out. I'm disappointed for the guy as he is clearly very talented but the desperation of making the Olympics has driven him to cheat. Was actually looking forward to seeing how he got on in Houston.

myflipflops

Some quotes from Keith Kelly on Twitter:

Keith Kelly wrote: »

Fagan never competed using PED's. Lots more info to come

Then in response to a Bobby Curtis comment of involving the phrase 'innocent until proven guilty'

Keith Kelly wrote: »

no innocence here. He used drugs, and gave himself up. His state of mind was not rational. It's really tough to take.

Looks like he took the decision in the last 6 months or so. Test was December 10th by all accounts.

Still in shock along with pretty much everyone else who ever ran with or against the man.

Getonwithit

Puts the rest of the athletics team under pressure now as well. Every interview will carry the threat if a question on it. The sport itself takes a hit too as a result.

jeffontour

04072511 wrote: »

Ah no, don't say that. Martin Fagan, Cathal Lombard and Geraldine Hendricken shouldn't spoil things for the rest of our very talented, hard working, dedicated and most importantly CLEAN athletes.

Ah look, I hear ya. And I was probably trying to express my disappointment, more than a decreased liklihood to support our athletes who make the games or any other event, and are proven clean.

But I am disappointed that in the same week we had a story of a gymnast making the games agaisnt all sorts of bad odds and I believe there's a guy looking good for BMX, if not already qualified. This just sours those good news stories and unfortunately will headline the Sunday paper sports as opposed to the aforementioned positives.

But sure by the time the torch has had it's flying visit hopefully it will have been all good news stories only.

tang1

So sad to see this, he was a seriously talented lad. Career ruined now.

dna_leri

sh1t. My kids met him at Great Ireland run a few years ago, he was super with them - photos, autographs, advice. Can't bring myself to tell them this news. This will colour their view of all athletes.

Itziger

dna_leri wrote: »

sh1t. My kids met him at Great Ireland run a few years ago, he was super with them - photos, autographs, advice. Can't bring myself to tell them this news. This will colour their view of all athletes.

This is the sad bit. It just takes a little bit from every great performance in the future. Yeah, great performance, but ........... It's happened in cycling and is happening in athletics (again). Lots of sports ducking under the radar I'd say.

Dan man

For me this will take absolutely nothing away from any Irish athletes or their performances. This is an individual case and in no way is this sort of thing systemic in Irish athletics. Hope the media reflect this point fairly.

myflipflops

Itziger wrote: »

This is the sad bit. It just takes a little bit from every great performance in the future. Yeah, great performance, but ........... It's happened in cycling and is happening in athletics (again). Lots of sports ducking under the radar I'd say.

Hopefully someone manages to get it out there that you can have faith in Irish athletes because we do catch the cheats.

Fagan has gotten done before he got to cheat in a race, Lombard was hounded, Hendricken hounded. We even catch clean athletes like Gareth Turnbull!

notsofast

Dan man wrote: »

For me this will take absolutely nothing away from any Irish athletes or their performances. This is an individual case and in no way is this sort of thing systemic in Irish athletics. Hope the media reflect this point fairly.

Somehow, I don't see the likes of Ivan Yeates taking that point of view.:(

drquirky

04072511 wrote: »

: If the Russians, Chinese, Americans, etc etc all did what ourselves and the Brits do then you would see a hell of a lot more Irish medals and finalists at major global and continental championships.

I agree with most of your post but this statement is a complete load of horsesh!t.

MungoMan

The test was taken in Arizona. What authority would have done the test, was it the American Authorities, or Irish ? I dont think this is bad for Irish Athletics, it just shows that if people are using something illegal, they will be caught

suzieled

myflipflops wrote: »

Some quotes from Keith Kelly on Twitter:

Originally Posted by Keith Kelly
no innocence here. He used drugs, and gave himself up. His state of mind was not rational. It's really tough to take.

So sad to hear this news. I think the key thing I see from the quote above is "His state of mind was not rational". Im not a runner/athletic in anyway but watching you guys, the better performance you are doing the greater the fall when something goes wrong. Add the pressure of the Olympics on top of that an god only knows what was going on in his mind to do what he did.
Taking drugs is wrong, we all know that, but my heart goes out to him, his family and friends.

pconn062

This makes me huge sad, I am a big Fagan fan. The worst thing is that the Irish sports media will probably jump on this now, as opposed to last month when Fionnuala Britton won the European Cross Country and it barely registered with the media here. Sad day.

shels4ever

Gutted when I heard the news today, was reading keiths twitter there ,and will be good to hear the whole story. Was verry annoyed with Martin but sounds like there is more to it indeed.

If he came fwd before the test then its a different story but until then who knows what was going through his head.

BeepBeep67

It's difficult not to hear this and not feel disappointed for Fagan, Irish Athletics and Athletics in general. The highs of Britton over the last few weeks where my sport was the topic of conversation in work will now be again for the wrong reasons. *sad*

theboyblunder

Ah lets not over-react here. I think he actually deserves a bit of sympathy.

Obviously not because he got caught and wont now go to the olympics. Its tough for kids who might have looked up to him etc but its not a bad example. Cheating is a part of life, he wont profit from it (quite the opposite) and nobody died. Anyone on this forum ever do anything dishonest?

If its true he took EPO then it demonstrates a very fragile mindset IMO. AFAIK the current idea behind making EPO undectable is based on very carefully managing microdoses and being lucky with out of competition tests? Its passe and the doping equivalent of having a thinly-disguised ace up your sleeve in poker.

He would have seen what happened to Lombard, yet took it anyway. Without knowing any other of the circumstances, id say its the actions of a desparate man under a lot of pressure.

I hope he is ok.

PS also glad he has the guts to come clean

pconn062

theboyblunder wrote: »

Ah lets not over-react here. I think he actually deserves a bit of sympathy.

Obviously not because he got caught and wont now go to the olympics. Its tough for kids who might have looked up to him etc but its not a bad example. Cheating is a part of life, he wont profit from it (quite the opposite) and nobody died. Anyone on this forum ever do anything dishonest?

If its true he took EPO then it demonstrates a very fragile mindset IMO. AFAIK the current idea behind making EPO undectable is based on very carefully managing microdoses and being lucky with out of competition tests? Its passe and the doping equivalent of having a thinly-disguised ace up your sleeve in poker.

He would have seen what happened to Lombard, yet took it anyway. Without knowing any other of the circumstances, id say its the actions of a desparate man under a lot of pressure.

I hope he is ok.

PS also glad he has the guts to come clean

While I agree with most of what you say, I think it's more of a case that people are disappointed more than angry that our best long distance runner of recent years will (probably) not be at the Olympics this year and that's a real kicker, and I think that after all the problems and injuries he's had that athletic fans just want to see him do well like how close he came in Chicago last year, and this is going to be very damaging in the long term for his career.

ecoli

Was shocked when i heard this. First heard it yesterday morning and assumed it to be a poor constructed rumour.

Can't help but wonder whether his marathon attempt in Chicago and the pressure of hitting the qualifying time this weekend for London contributed to this.

If he was able to stay on his feet for that last mile I think he might not have been in such a fragile state mentally and not have had to resorted to such desperate measures.

Really a sad day for Irish athletics and for himself that he felt that it was his only option

downthemiddle

theboyblunder wrote: »

Ah lets not over-react here. I think he actually deserves a bit of sympathy.

Obviously not because he got caught and wont now go to the olympics. Its tough for kids who might have looked up to him etc but its not a bad example. Cheating is a part of life, he wont profit from it (quite the opposite) and nobody died. Anyone on this forum ever do anything dishonest?

If its true he took EPO then it demonstrates a very fragile mindset IMO. AFAIK the current idea behind making EPO undectable is based on very carefully managing microdoses and being lucky with out of competition tests? Its passe and the doping equivalent of having a thinly-disguised ace up your sleeve in poker.

He would have seen what happened to Lombard, yet took it anyway. Without knowing any other of the circumstances, id say its the actions of a desparate man under a lot of pressure.

I hope he is ok.

PS also glad he has the guts to come clean

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. While I share your concern for his personal welfare this is a betrayal of the sport.
Martin Fagan was no Cathal Lombard or Geraldine Hendricken. This is a bolt from the blue.
There are people in Mullingar today who have devoted their whole lives to the sport of athletics. Martin Fagan was their poster boy. He was the athlete their juveniles aspired to be. I can only imagine the sense of devastation in the club as they try to come to terms with this. The club name will now be associated with a drugs cheat. People in the wider community who have no knowledge of the excellent work they do will now regard Mullingar as the club that produced a drugs cheat.
There are many people in Irish athletics who have given Martin Fagan support down through the years. It is a betrayal of their efforts. There are many people the length and breath of the country who give countless hours to introduce young children to this wonderful sport. Their task has been made so much more difficult by this.
Athletics is a cruel sport. Unlike team sports there is no hiding place. Ultimately the athlete in in competition with himself , striving to improve, to be the best that he can be. Martin Fagan has betrayed himself and that is the saddest part of this story.

Krusty_Clown

downthemiddle wrote: »

The club name will now be associate with a drugs cheat.

I certainly didn't make that association.... Until I read your post. So the more you bandy it about, the more you will make it true. I think everyone is aware that these are the desperate measures of a desperate man, and has nothing to do with the club, but rather, something he may have done on his own to try find a way through self-imposed and external pressures.

The sad thing is that if he wasn't successful in his Olympic bid, if he didn't win another medal, he'd still be a hero to me and many others too.

theboyblunder

downthemiddle wrote: »

There are people in Mullingar today who have devoted their whole lives to the sport of athletics. Martin Fagan was their poster boy. He was the athlete their juveniles aspired to be. I can only imagine the sense of devastation in the club as they try to come to terms with this. The club name will now be associate with a drugs cheat. People in the wider community who have no knowledge of the excellent work they do will now regard Mullingar as the club that produced a drugs cheat.
There are many people in Irish athletics who have given Martin Fagan support down through the years. It is a betrayal of their efforts. There are many people the length and breath of the country who give countless hours to introduce young children to this wonderful sport. Their task has been made so much more difficult by this.

Its wrong of course, but these things tend to get blown out of all proportion because its sport. So what if there are people who helped him? He will suffer from this, they wont really, not in a real sense. They'll feel let down im sure, betrayed even I suppose if they are particularly judgemental people, but its hardly a huge thing.

To be honest I think there is a double standard here. Dont wont to go off topic too much, but words like betrayed, disgusted, etc are badied about when a guy, obviously in a tough spot mentally, makes a big mistake (which will possibly end his career and prevent him from holding his head high in his home town for life - punishment enough one might say ), while we all know people who do nixers, people who claim disability when they shouldnt, people who dont declare income for tax etc and we dont talk about them in this way, even though what they are doing is cheating (stealing even), arguably way worse in tangible terms given that we are on our knees financially and cutting assistance for kids with special needs etc at the moment.

Im not saying we should start hammering the self-employed , but maybe we (collectively) could go easy on the 'betrayed', 'devastation' and 'disgusted' etc?

The Khmer Rouge were devastating, Quisling betrayed his country and paedophilia is disgusting. Im an athletics enthusiast, but the bottom line is that Martin Fagan doped, thats all. He was caught (which is good for the sport). He is not lying about it, and he is going to pay for it dearly enough without us exaggerating the possible impact of it on ourselves and others.

PS I dont know him or anyone in mullingar personally

AEDIC

pconn062 wrote: »

This makes me huge sad, I am a big Fagan fan. The worst thing is that the Irish sports media will probably jump on this now, as opposed to last month when Fionnuala Britton won the European Cross Country and it barely registered with the media here. Sad day.

I couldnt agree with this post more if I tried.

Firstly on Fagan, I am (was - I am so confused) a big fan of his and thought he was going to improve and improve.... everything looked good for him just the mental hurdle to overcome. I am so utterly utterly p*ssed off by this.

The second point is a very good one Fionnuala has done some really amazing runs in the last few months and yest I bet column inches will be miserly in comparison to this story once it is all done and dusted. Irish sports media will be wetting themselves with glee today.... they have finally got a story they can get their teeth into rather than celebrating success....

griffin100

Would a jamacan sprinter for example who failed a drugs test be getting the same level of sympathy as Fagan is on this thread?

He couldn't do it clean, cheated and got caught. Its easy after the fact to say you weren't in the right state of mind or you were unduely influenced or whatever excuse you want to use but cheating is cheating. How do we know this is the first time he's done it?

Like most peole here I was a fan of Fagan and am disappointed at what's happened, but I wouldn't have been any less of a fan if he had not qualified for London. It's a sad day for Irish athletics.

gerard65

griffin100 wrote: »

Would a jamacan sprinter for example who failed a drugs test be getting the same level of sympathy as Fagan is on this thread?

He couldn't do it clean, cheated and got caught. Its easy after the fact to say you weren't in the right state of mind or you were unduely influenced or whatever excuse you want to use but cheating is cheating. How do we know this is the first time he's done it?

Like most peole here I was a fan of Fagan and am disappointed at what's happened, but I wouldn't have been any less of a fan if he had not qualified for London. It's a sad day for Irish athletics.

Completely agree, and can't believe some of the total crap posted on this thread. Fagan cheated and has dragged Irish athletics into the gutter with him. He knew what he was doing and did'nt give a crap, his own ego was more important.
How anyone can show any sympathy for a drugs cheat is beyond me. There can be no excuses for what he did, hopefully this is the end of his career, I certainly would like him to compete for Ireland again.

woodchopper

Martin can still run plenty of road races in America despite the two year ban which is where he earns his living. Cant understand the need to take the stuff especially since he could run 2.12-2.13 no problem.

ultrapercy

Every case needs to be taken on its individual merits and its true that you will see some double standards in the reaction of some Irish athletics fans towards Fagan versus a foreign athlete, a Jamican sprinter for example. Martin Fagan always came across to me as very needy and insecure.I think the lad is in trouble now and sympathy is the correct response. Important and all as athletics and sport in general is to me (and US) its not as important as the emotional well being,or perhaps even life of a vunerable young man. Everyone makes mistakes,some make very bad ones.The combination of pressure, isolation, expectation,boredom,injuries,dissapointment and all the other factors someone in his situation has to deal with daily can lead to bad decision making.Maybe this botched amaturish cheating attempt should be viewed as a cry for help.I say all this having never spoken to the man in my life,its just a feeling I have from following his career fairly closely.

shels4ever

gerard65 wrote: »

Completely agree, and can't believe some of the total crap posted on this thread. Fagan cheated and has dragged Irish athletics into the gutter with him. He knew what he was doing and did'nt give a crap, his own ego was more important.
How anyone can show any sympathy for a drugs cheat is beyond me. There can be no excuses for what he did, hopefully this is the end of his career, I certainly would like him to compete for Ireland again.

Yep i'd agree, but sometime with setbacks and pressure people can crack and do things they wouldnt normally do, if you look at one of the most anit doping people about Paul Kimmage he did give into to the pressure and dope also, wasnt something he wanted to do , or kept doing he knew it was wrong and stopped.
Not saying that fagan did the same . I dont know how long he was doing it, and by some of the sounding out there is wasnt a long term thing. On reading Coghlan's Auto bio also there was a time he was close to doing the same thing but went another way, was a very fine line. Maybe for Martin it would have been best if he had finnished running last year when he quite the sport but i'm sure lots more will come out over the next few days. There is more to life than running too so could be a good thing for him in the long run.

omerin

I'm not an expert on athletics, just a casual observer, i.e. Olympics . I've never herard of him, had he any chance of a medal?

trihead

Just reading this now and am completing shocked:eek: - would have followed his progress last few years and held him in high regard - Can not believe it at all. I really don't know what to think about it.

NickDrake

Not in anyway surprised. Are we expects to believe that crap from Kelly that he only just started taking it?

Shame on him. All the money he got from us over the years. Absolute disgrace

airscotty

omerin wrote: »

I've never herard of him, had he any chance of a medal?

No... He had a chance of making it to the start line which is impressive in it's self

woodchopper

omerin wrote: »

I'm not an expert on athletics, just a casual observer, i.e. Olympics . I've never herard of him, had he any chance of a medal?

He is the Irish record holder for the half marathon beating John Treacy's old record. Have you ever heard of him?

With regards to medals, you do realize to beat the top Kenyans in the marathon is not easy. There is no comparsion between these top Kenyans and the likes of John Treacy or Eamon Coughlan. These guys are running 2.03, so no Martin never had a chance of an olympic medal although he had the potential to be the best marathoner in Europe, which in itself is an achivement given the hysteria about rugby and soccer in this country.

Pisco Sour

The more I think about it the less surprised I am. The man has been riddled with injuries over the years. Given the fact he could never get himself healthy it is not all that surprising that he went down the route of drugs.

Also being honest I am not altogether happy about Irish athletes training in the USA. Granted there are a huge amount of athletes over there doing it by honest means (I would bet my house on Allyson Felix being clean) but in the end of the day doping is more rampant over there than it is here and athletes in the USA have much easier access to such facilities, and a much greater temptation (training partners taking stuff) than they would in Ireland.

The more Irish athletes that stay in Ireland and the UK the better IMO!! Keep em away from the USA and their high tech labs!!!

woodchopper

NickDrake wrote: »

Not in anyway surprised. Are we expects to believe that crap from Kelly that he only just started taking it?

Shame on him. All the money he got from us over the years. Absolute disgrace

Good man you must have access to a cystal ball. He has not been on the Sports Council grant since 2009 when he broke the Irish half marathon record, so no it was not money wasted. It is bad for his sponcer Reebok and his coach Keith Kelly who will have to be called into question. Coaches are supposed to provide leadership.

downthemiddle

theboyblunder wrote: »

Its wrong of course, but these things tend to get blown out of all proportion because its sport. So what if there are people who helped him? He will suffer from this, they wont really, not in a real sense. They'll feel let down im sure, betrayed even I suppose if they are particularly judgemental people, but its hardly a huge thing.

Im an athletics enthusiast, but the bottom line is that Martin Fagan doped, thats all. He was caught (which is good for the sport). He is not lying about it, and he is going to pay for it dearly enough without us exaggerating the possible impact of it on ourselves and others.

PS I dont know him or anyone in mullingar personally

There are very few athletics enthusiasts who would agree with you in my opinion.