Get rid of dopers

Ivan Tsikhan was twice caught on doping. The Polish throwers did not allow Belarussian hammer thrower to start in the Sunday's Kusociński Memorial meeting

- Tsikhan? Erm, there is nothing to talk about. A few people gathered, and said that he'd better not start. And it is good that this has ended - said shotputter Tomasz Majewski. - There are different dopers in sport, but the worst are cases among the medal winners of the Olympic Games. Such persons need to be isolated - added two-time Olympic champion.

In fact, Tsikhan has exceptional and shocking story behind him.

In 2008 Tsikhan and his compatriot Vadim Deviatovski were caught at an elevated level of testosterone after the Olympic final in Beijing, where they won bronze and silver respectively. IAAF wanted to take away their medals, but they kept medals thanks to their lawyers. The effective line of defence was an absurd - in anti-doping report an officer wrote down time of start of the competition instead of time of taking probe. That was enough for CAS in Lausanne.

In the end, however, he was cought. In 2012 a urine sample taken from Tsikhan in 2004 was tested again. The test showed traces of methandienon. He lost an olympic medal won in Athens, and a gold from the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005. And gold from ECh in 2006 in Gothenburg.

Tsikhan was then disqualified for two seasons, and now - at the age of 39 - he's back. In July in Yerino near Moscow, he throw 77.46 and he was selected for the World Championships to Beijing.

Before that he wants to check his power in Szczecin, Poland. And this was opposed by Poles.

- That's right, the athletes reported to me - says Henryk Olszewski, vice president of the Polish athletic federation, and Majewski's coach. - Who specifically? Well, Tomasz Majewski, offcourse. Then also Paweł Fajdek joined (world champion and the best hammer thrower this season). I wrote a letter after their intervention - Olszewski says.

The addressee is a Memorial Kusociński's sports manager Czeslaw Zapala, who was responsible for the start lists.

Olszewski wrote: "Tsikhan career had nothing in common with the ideas of sports". "Expressing a common position of the Polish athletes, please do not invite those who betrayed the Olympic ideas and integrity of sport".

The Belarusian was on the starting list, but did not attend the meeting. Zapała said that he called Tsikhan's manager and told him that the Polish athletes do not wish to participate in the same competition with convinced doper.

Majewski does not boast of blocking Tsikhan's start. But the Polish athletes' action is part of a new trend in sport society. Increasingly, athletes wants to fight dopers on their own way, because they are disappointed by incompetence of the IAAF.

A week ago, a German television ARD and the British "Sunday Times" examined the results of 12,000 blood tests involving 5,000 athletes from 2001 to 2012 and concluded that 800 were suspicious.

The reports allege that 146 medals - including 55 golds - in disciplines ranging from the 800 metres to the marathon at the Olympics and World Championships were won by athletes who have recorded suspicious tests.

- All our discipline stood on the edge - said Tomasz Lewandowski, trainer and elder brother of Marcin, 800m runner, one of the best in Europe. - If we, best clean athletes, will organize ourselves in sports society, that would be something. We could create kind of order, voluntarily commit to online antidoping monitoring. Anyone wishing to enter the "clean order" or take part in championships or Olympic Games, would have to obey the rules, prove that he is clean - Lewandowski suggested.

Lisa Dobriskey, silver medalist at the 1500 m World Championships in Berlin, on the website of The Mixed Zone dedicated to the sport of women, published a long, emotional story about their struggle with dopers, which were later disqualified. Helplessness was above all in her essay. ""(...) transparency and honesty are vital. Protect the sport, not an organisation"- she appealed to Sebastian Coe and Sergei Bubka, who are competing for the post of head of the IAAF. The vote will take place on August 19 in Beijing, three days before the start of the World Championships.

On Sunday three-time World Champ and Olympic gold medallist from London, discus thrower Robert Harting and his sports friends posted a video on YouTube: "Dear IAAF, we cannot trust you anymore. We have to act now". American shot putter Eric Werskey adds in the video: "You damage our sport". Harting's girlfriend, discus thrower Julia Fischer, holds up a handwritten message saying: "You broke my childhood dreams". "You put money over athletes," says hammer thrower Kathrin Klaas, while 800 metres runner Robin Schembera adds: "I want to run against clean athletes, not monsters." Harting concludes with the message, "You betrayed my beliefs."

The athletes say they demand "honesty, integrity, transparency".

They hold up signs with #hitIAAF.

Action is gaining momentum, publicized by double Olympic champion shotputter Valerie Adams and many athletes who have exposed solid sense of injustice.

In the last scene of the film sad kid shown us a sheet of with one word "Future?".

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