So You Think You Know: Jesse Owens.

History will recall that American Jesse Owens claimed four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics but there is so much more to it than simple hardware. For some, his deeds transcend simple track and field – his achievements are heralded as good triumphing over the forces of evil. For others, a powerful political statement and the embodiment of a nation - the young black American vanquishing the so called master race’s best – a result that would be repeated on a much bloodier scale less than a decade later. For still others, Owen's is the classic underdog story – one man succeeding against all the odds.

So you think you know Jesse Owens?

James Cleveland Owens was born on the 12th of September 1912 in Oakville Alabama, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of a slave. At the age of nine the Owen family moved to Cleveland, Ohio in search of prosperity. James enrolled in a public school and on his first day of class when the teacher asked his name, she heard Jesse, instead of James Cleveland due to his southern drawl.

He would be called Jesse from that point forward.

It was Coach Charlie Riley who first noticed Jesse’s remarkable talent when the students were timed over 60 yards in gym class. Coach Riley immediately invited Owens to join the school track team but due to work commitments Owens was unable to train after school so had to practice in the mornings instead. During high school Owens (nicknamed the Buckeye Bullet) first equalled the 100 yards (91.4m) world record of 9.4 seconds. He went on to equal it again at the interscholastic championships in Chicago where he also jumped 24 feet 9 5/8 inches (7.55m). Jesse was very much in demand by universities all over the United States but eventually he elected to study at Ohio State. However, in a country where racial segregation was common place and racism a fact of life for black people, Owens was forced to live off campus with other African Americans whilst continuing to fund his education and track activities with a succession of part time jobs – since he was black he was not eligible for a scholarship. In addition when he travelled to track meets he would have to stay at black only hotels and was not allowed to eat with his white peers.

But on the track things were different.

In 1935 at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on the 25th of May Owens shrugged off a back injury – the result of falling down a flight of stairs earlier that week to win the 100 yards in 9.4 seconds, once again tying the world record. Just 15 minutes later Owens took the long jump title with a new world record of 26 feet 8 1/4 inches (8.13m) beating the old record by 6 inches. That was followed by the 220 yards (201.17m) gold in a world record time of 20.3 seconds, shaving 3 tenths off of the old mark. Owens final event of the day was the 220 yard low hurdles which produced the same result – gold for Owens in a new world record time of 22.6 seconds – beating the old record by 4 tenths. As the sun set Jesse Owens had accomplished a feat never before or since equalled – he had set 3 world records and tied a fourth in a single day. Few if any now doubted Owens greatness and status as a living legend in track and field. As his sophomore year ended Jesse decided to enter the Berlin Olympic Games, better known today as the ‘Hitler games’.

It was common knowledge that Germany’s Nazi dictator sought to use the games to publicise his Aryan race – displaying them as the super humans he believed them to be. Germany did top the medal count at the games but Owens was the star with his individual wins in the 100m (10.3s), 200m (20.7s) and long jump (8.05m), all in Olympic records as well as helping the 4x100m relay team to the gold medal in a world record time of 39.8 seconds, “It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized: I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere -- one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know.” Owens was cheered enthusiastically by the 110,000 people in the Olympic Stadium and later ordinary Germans sought his autograph when they saw him on the streets.

Unlike life back in the ‘land of the free’, Owens was allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites and whilst Adolf Hitler acknowledged Owens achievements publicly the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt snubbed Owens – failing to even send him a telegram. Such was Owens lasting impact on Berliners, they named a street after the star of their Olympics. After the games Owens was invited to compete in Sweden along with the rest of the US team but decided to return home to take up several lucrative endorsement offers with the hope that the money would provide for his poor family. However, American athletics officials were furious that a black man was profiting from the sport and promptly withdrew his amateur status – effectively ending his competitive career.

Owens was crushed.

In the years that followed Owens made a living as a runner for hire racing against men, animals, motorcycles and even thoroughbred horses. The Negro baseball league often hired him to run against their fastest ball players – Owens would even give the challengers a generous head start before beating them. For the next few decades Owens continued to speak in public on topics such as motivation and religion and in 1976 president Gerald Ford presented Owens with the Medal of Freedom – the highest decoration an American civilian can attain. Finally Owens had achieved the financial success that first led to his expulsion from track and field. From the mid 1950s Owens purchased a new car every year for the rest of his life as well as large homes for himself and his parents. Through the medium of sport Owens had managed to overcome racism, bigotry and segregation to prove that black athletes could be successful on the world stage. Looking back on his Olympic success Owens commented, “For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.”

Jesse Owens died on the 31st of March 1980 in Tuscan, Arizona aged sixty-six of lung cancer. In 1990 a second American president – George Bush honoured Owens ‘triumphs of humanity’ by presenting him posthumously with the congressional gold medal. He was succeeded by his wife and three daughters who continue to run the Jesse Owens foundation for underprivileged people.

As the dust settles: Team GB’s exploits in Beijing.

Four years ago Team GB won three gold medals, this year they had to make do with just the one, yet there is a huge sense of improvement on the Athens effort, why is this and how are we looking ahead of 2012?

The facts:

Male team members: 28
Female team members: 37

Total: 65

Medal Table Finish: 9th

Gold - Christine Ohurougu (400m)
Silver - Phillips Idowu (TJ), Germaine Mason (HJ)
Bronze - Tasha Danvers (400mH)

Medal rate: 6.15% (Pre-Games Target 7.69%)
Points rate: 12.3% (Gold= 3, Silver= 2, Bronze= 1)

Male Finalists (or top 8 if final not applicable):

Martyn Rooney (6th) (400m)
Andy Badderley (9th) (1500m)
Christian Malcolm (6th) (200m)
4x400m team (4th)
Larry Achike (7th) (TJ)
Greg Rutherford (10th) (LJ)
Tom Parsons (8th) (HJ)
Martyn Bernard (9th) (HJ)

Female Finalists:

Jeanette Kwachye (6th) (100m)
Lisa Dobriskey (4th) (1500m)
Jade Johnson (7th) (LJ)
Goldie Sayers (4th) (Jav)
Sarah Claxton (8th) (100h)
Kelly Sotherton (4th)
Mara Yamauchi (6th)
4x100m (DNF)
4x400m (5th)

Total: 21 (32.3% conversion rate from entrants to finalists)

Now for a breakdown of Team GB’s performance in Beijing.

Selection Process: Firstly the positives; picking Tasha Danvers after her awful performance at the Olympic trials was a bold move, especially as it was at the expense of Perri Shakes-Drayton, a junior athlete who beat her at the trials and had the ‘B’ standard, but fast forward a month and Danvers is the Olympic bronze medallist with a new personal best to boot. Inspired. However even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut. Richard Yates not being selected for the 400m hurdles, despite achieving the ‘B’ standard and then going on to achieve the ‘A’ standard at the Crystal Palace GP was a poor decision, as was selecting an injury plagued Dale Garland (ranked 17th in the country over 400m this year) over a young Richard Strachan in the men’s 4x400m relay and Donna Fraser over Kim Wall in the women’s equivalent. The list goes on; Mark Edwards had more than a legitimate claim for selection in the men’s shot putt after throwing the ‘A’ standard twice. Emma Ania was dropped in favour of Laura Turner who could only manage 11.6 in the heats of the 100m, Michael East and Jo Ankier each had reasonable claims on a place but were also denied. Finally, the aforementioned Shakes-Drayton should probably have been selected for the 400m hurdles. While the GB team selected was indeed a strong team, stronger than in recent championships, it was still weakened by bad selections, selections that ultimately hampered development of promising athletes, hampered Team GB’s performance in individual events and hampered selection for relay teams from their respective squads.

Sprints: By far our most successful series of events producing one gold and three other finalists (not including relays, more on them later) across the 6 disciplines (M/F 100m, 200m, 400m). Of those four, Gold medallist Christine Ohurougu, 400m runner Martyn Rooney and Jeanette Kwakye (both 6th in the 400m and 100m respectively) are likely to gain a large amount of publicity in the run up to the London games if they stay healthy, mainly due to their homes being a collective stones throw from the Olympic stadium in Stratford. The forth finalist, Christian Malcolm (200m) will most likely not still be competing in four years time. In addition the performances of Emily Freeman, Andrew Steele, Nicola Sanders, Montel Douglas and Tyrone Edgar give further reason to be optimistic about the future. Simeon Williamson, Craig Pickering, Alex Nelson (through injury, more on that later) and Laura Turner all had relatively poor championships and more will be expected in the future but time is on their side. Marlon Devonish and Lee McConnell both qualified for the semi-finals of their respective events but are in the twilight of their careers.

Hurdles: Our second most impressive track series with a bronze medal and another finalist. Turner underperformed but in such a technical event it isn’t always easy to be consistent. Alan Scott was there for the ride. Two 110m hurdlers made the trip but no male 400m hurdlers were in Beijing. On the women’s side there was one 400m hurdler and one 100m hurdler. This indicates a lack of talent at the world level. Perri Shakes-Drayton could have been selected and may well improve in the next few years to world level and Gemma Werrett has improved massively over the past two years and may make the European indoors or even the World champs next year in the sprint hurdles.

Middle Distance: Very poor in terms of male turn out with only Andy Badderley, Tom Lancashire and Michael Rimmer being selected showing a lack of depth in both events. The fact that Rimmer has won the trials three times now at the age of 21 shows how bad this is. However Badderley and Rimmer showed good form in reaching a final and a semi-final and will probably be around for 2012, as will Lancashire who could not escape the heat. On the female side Lisa Dobriskey performed admirably and continues to assert herself at the highest level, Steph Twell also performed well and is another one for the future. However the 800m, an event where Britain is supposed to have improved upon is a problem. We now have three women under 2 minutes this year but put simply sub 2 minutes isn’t the mark of world class 800m running anymore, sub 1:58 makes the world’s top 10. Okoro is the closest to this new benchmark. Again many of these 800m girls are young and have plenty of room for improvement in the coming years.

Long Distance: Oh dear. Mara Yamauchi’s spectacular 6th place in the marathon aside, these championships were pathetic. Farah contrived to eliminate himself from the 5000m and the sole positive to be taken from that performance is the knowledge that he would loathe to repeat it. What’s even worse is that many athletes ran (Jo Pavey ran a 10k PB, Helen Clitheroe a new national record in the 3k steeplechase, admittedly an event making its debut at the games) but were still way off the pace. Andrew Lemoncello found the going too tough in the heats of the 3k chase, Dan Robinson finished down the field in the Marathon and other runners succumbed to a variety of injuries both during and prior to competition, more on Reed, Yelling and Radcliffe later. Overall long distance is a definite weakness of team GB that needs urgent attention.

Jumps: The men’s triple jump and men’s high jump were the only field events that could boast 3 British athletes. Two in the men’s long jump, one in both pole vault competitions and women’s long jump and no athletes in the women’s high jump or triple jump again indicate a weakness where depth is concerned, like many events. However with two silver medals and seven finalists all but one (Larry Achike) are likely to still be available in 2012 showing the jumps to have a strong but unfortunately shallow pool of talent. Triple Jumper Idowu jumped a seasons best for his silver medal and Germaine Mason timed his best leap in a British vest to perfection. Both athletes were backed up by other British interests who performed well in the shape of Martyn Bernard, Tom Parsons and Larry Achike. Unfortunately Nathan Douglas continues to struggle to find the form of his early career as do Jade Johnson and Chris Tomlinson. Steve Lewis and Kate Denison each failed to make their respective finals, Lewis for committing the cardinal sin of three no jumps and Denison despite equalling her PB. However both are young enough to continue to improve in an event with a slightly longer lifespan than your average track and field discipline.

Throws: The only thing team GB is throwing away is its chances of creeping up the medal table. Not a single male thrower in the team and only three females. This is shameful. Luckily, Goldie Sayers is one of those female throwers and her national record in the Javelin underlined her credentials as a future medallist with a fine 4th place effort. The other two, Zoe Derham (Hammer) and Phillipa Roles (Discus) both exited in the heats way short of qualification. GB’s enduring lack of throwing talent at the highest level is odd when you consider the powerhouses of throwing are all European nations and it is something the powers that be will have to address urgently as in 2012 there cannot be these large gaps of GB interest in so many fields.

Multi-Events: Kelly Sotherton will surely view these Olympics as a missed opportunity, had it not been for poor high and long jumps plus a mediocre shot putt she would have had at least a bronze and possibly silver. She has proved over the course of the last four years in all events that she has the capacity to win a major world title but perhaps not the temperament to hold it together over the course of seven events (or five, given her collapse to part-time multi-eventer Tia Hellebaut at the world indoors). That being said she does possess a bewildering number of medals at major championships and thus her failure to secure a piece of hardware at these championships put team GB at a distinct disadvantage in the medal table. Julie Holman’s performance was indicative of one for whom participation at the games was the crowing achievement of a career rather than a platform from which to build upon. Daniel Awde was the men’s sole representative and finished a disappointing 200 odd points below his personal best.

Relays: A tale of poor selections, tactical mistakes and personnel errors in events that should have provided at least two medals in Beijing. Nobody but Craig Pickering knows why he set off early in heat 2 of the 4x100m, only Montel Douglas really knows why the baton did not reach Emily Freeman in the women’s 4x100m final. It could be worse; US teams have dropped the baton 5 times in the last 12 races at major championships. However as costly as those mistakes were to team GB and the psyche’s of the athletes themselves; their failure should spur them onto greater success and to train better for the relay because no matter how much it mattered to deliver in Beijing, it will matter more in London. To err is human as they say and mistakes will happen as long as people are supposedly in control. The men’s 4x400m team ran well to secure 4th place with Rooney running a superlative 43.7 split going from 6th position on the final leg. In Rooney, Steele, Tobin and Benjamin (who will be 30) we could have four sub 45 runners in 2012 which will significantly enhance the chances of competing with the perennially strong US and Russian teams in the future. The 4x400m relay for women however was indeed a debacle. Ohurougu and Sanders would make it into any relay team in the world but the other half of the quartet could certainly have been better. Picking Sotherton (50.4) and Okoro (51.7) when Tasha Danvers was left on the sidelines is the definition of a bad call. Worse yet is how a Heptathlete and an 800m runner can make the team whilst our forth best 400m runner this year (Vicky Barr) is left out and our fifth best (Kim Wall) is left back in Britain despite both having run significantly faster. The argument of a ‘safe pair of hands’ simply does not make sense since the 4x400m requires far less technical skill than its shorter equivalent. Another nonsensical decision was the running order: Ohurougu to Sotherton to Okoro with Sanders bringing it home. Placing your best athlete on first effectively robs you of the chance to make a comeback if things do not go well (just look at Rooney in the men’s event) as well as asking your least experienced athlete (Sotherton) to take the complex second leg with the lane split ahead of the more rookie friendly third leg. A running order of Sanders, Barr, Danvers and Ohurougu may well have produced a better result for precisely these reasons and one can only hope these mistakes will not be repeated by GB management.

Injuries: In a sport where physical fitness is the single most important factor in an athlete’s performance, the approach towards injuries and management of injuries is clearly of interest. An injured athlete, or one with limited training due to injury, will not compete at their expected level and there are simply no athletes in the world who can win an Olympic medal half fit as Tyson Gay proved. With this fact in mind the question must be asked why Chris Tomlinson was flown out to Beijing days after being given the all clear for his calf tear, why Kate Reed was put through a 2km fitness test twenty four hours before her event or why Alex Nelson was allowed to attempt to warm up for the 200m despite sustaining a hamstring injury four days before. However, the greatest injury farce to affect team GB is obviously the Paula Radcliffe debacle. Somebody so badly injured as to have a stress fracture three months before the games is never going to be a medal contender in the intense competition of the Olympics. It is obvious that team GB brought far too many walking wounded to China who were never going to improve the medal count. With that in mind is there any point taking already injured athletes no matter how good they are? The performances of Radcliffe, Reed, Nelson, Williamson (who carried an injury just prior to the games, missing several weeks of training) and Tomlinson certainly suggest a change is required.

Conclusions: At the beginning of the championships team GB targeted 5 medals; they failed. They targeted 14 finalists; they succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams. Now the task is to turn the finalists to podium finishes. The what if’s will continue to bother those that dwell on them: what if Radcliffe had been fit? Sotherton had shown more form or Jessica Ennis not broken her ankle? What if Sayers threw 30cm further and Dobriskey ran just a few tenths faster? What if both 4x100m teams had managed to keep hold of the baton and pass it within the zone or the women’s 4x400m team not being selected by a monkey or Nelson Evora had broken his leg in the warm up for the triple jump final? Great Britain could well have ended up with many more medals. What if, what if, what if. However, the best way to counteract the cruel hand of fate when it comes to winning medals is to have lots of chances and it is here that GB must improve if they are to climb the pecking order of world track and field. That means selecting a larger pool of athletes for the Games and selecting it from a larger pool of developed talent, something that this country has done rather well in the last three years with Powerof10 being an obvious gauge. Whilst it is true that athletics is one of, if not the, most funded Olympic sport in this country, it is also the showpiece event of the games where medals are undoubtedly the hardest to win. The performances at these games by the athletics team should not provide calls for a reduction of funding, nor should they be ridiculed by a media using faulty comparisons with our success in ‘sitting down’ sports like Cycling or Sailing where participation and publicity is a lot less. So how far along are we on the road to London 2012? Whilst we do possess world class talent in many events, we urgently need to raise our game in the throws and long distance events with the hope of being able to field stronger teams in these events in the future. Team GB also urgently need to overhaul two key facets of the behind the scenes effort, namely the selection process and the treatment of injured athletes in the run up to a major championship. The selection process is confused in its desire to select athletes with the potential to develop at the world class level and also should not select athletes in relays that handicap the team management, in this case Dale Garland and Donna Fraser, who clearly had no chance of running and were not development athletes. The medical team should not entertain injured athletes in the games with the hope, rather than expectation, of them competing to their full potential, as soon it becomes clear they will not be 100% at the start of the competition they should be dropped and a fit replacement selected, as should have been the case with Rikki Fifton in the men’s 200m.

So You Think You Know: Raging Hormones

In the war on drugs, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) - a performance enhancer whose use stretches back over thirty years - is the weapon of choice for athletes who seek pharmaceutical help to increase their level of performance. The hormone was originally developed to help AIDs victims retain their muscle mass and to stimulate growth in children who had severe limitations in their bodies.

What are hormones and what do they do?
Put simply, hormones are chemical messengers that deliver signals from one part of the body to another. Like all hormones, HGH occurs naturally inside the body and is produced in the pituitary gland.

So what are the advantages of such a substance?
HGH operates anabolically, meaning it produces muscle. However, its effects are different to conventional steroids in that rather than enlarge muscular cells (hypertrophy) as products like Dianabol - the first commercially available steroid - do, HGH stimulates increased rates of cell division (by getting the body to make more insulin growth factor 1 or IGF1 which directly contributes to muscular expansion). In essence, it literally builds more muscle tissue rather than simply enlarging what you already have. Athletes such as Ben Johnson used a combination of both of these drugs with the hope of adding hypertrophy to already HGH increased muscles, although the evidence of this effect actually occurring is sketchy at best.

HGH is also used by athletes whose performances have reached a plateau. Even with performance enhancing steroids, they have made the most of the muscle they already have and HGH gives them more muscles tissue to use. Another physical benefit is that HGH seems to promote fat reduction, something that has been seized upon by a diet hungry media as well as its mooted anti-aging effects. Scientists have found that the levels of growth hormone in the human body decreases as they get older, by injecting HGH into somebody it slows down some age related diseases such as the ‘shrinking’ effect.

Anabolic steroids suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis - the system made up of the Hypothalamus, the Pituitary gland and the Gonads - which controls hormonal activity to do with the immune and reproductive systems. Its suppression can have serious health consequences, such as heart problems and liver disease. HGH however does not act upon this and as a result users do not need to cycle on and off the drug and can take it continuously for as long as they like. Indeed studies have shown that noticeable effects of HGH only begin to take place after two months of continuous use.

Perhaps most importantly though is the fact that there is still no definitive test for exogenous (externally produced of the body) growth hormone. In 2004 WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commissioned a study into human growth hormones effect as a performance enhancer and to investigate possible tests for it using 'genetic expression patterns'. A genetic expression pattern is the activation of genes within specific tissues within specific times of an organism at specific times during development. That is quite scientific, so imagine your cells as buildings and your genes as blueprints. The foundations for the building must be laid down before anything else can be built so the blueprints relating to the foundations are used first, then those for the walls, floors, roof and interiors are all used in a specific order or 'pattern'. Your genes construct your cells in much the same way. WADA scientists were looking at being able to predict the gene expression patterns of a clean athlete and comparing them to a HGH using subject. Did they find a difference and therefore discover a test?

Well sort of.

In February 2006, just before the winter Olympics, WADA was proud to announce they had developed a test for HGH. The press were quick to congratulate the scientists who had seemingly struck the cheats a decisive blow in the war on drugs. However, if we look closer this test is far from infallible for a few reasons. Firstly, the test is only effective if it is used on an athlete 20-30 hours after HGH has been injected, which when you consider tests have been developed that are so sensitive that they can detect tell tale signs of steroids a year and a half after they had been ingested by the subject, a little over a day window period is pretty poor. Secondly the test is only effective for synthetic (man made) HGH. This is where it gets hazy as sources inside the sport say that the synthetic brand is more popular than the natural source because once harvested from a dead body (grave robbing isn’t exactly a popular pastime so it is difficult to acquire on the black market) it does not store very well so keeping the continuing supply going is extremely difficult. So with all this Synthetic ‘rHGH’ floating around inside athletes you would think that with this new test hundreds of positives should follow, right? There has not been to date a single positive test for either variety of growth hormone with many scientists alleging it to have poor accuracy and natural flaws in how it is operated. Sorry guys, in the war on drugs the good guys it seems are firing blanks.

Is it hard to get hold of?
I was curious about how people went about obtaining Growth Hormone and its variants so in the course of my research I googled ‘rHGH’ (the ‘r’ stands for recombinant) and found the interesting site www.rajeun.net/buying.html. This in turn lead to a man called Ellis Troussier who assures all visitors to his part of cyberspace can buy human growth hormone and EPO legally from him and have it legally shipped to the UK for a cheap price, wonderful! There are dozens of similar sites advertising this and underlines just how easy it is to obtain these sorts of drugs.

The disadvantages.
These predominantly fall into two categories which are financial and medical. We will start with the one seemingly most important for athletes. HGH is phenomenally expensive, with a one-month supply costing upwards of $4,000 according to some sources whilst others maintain the usual price is $1 per IU. However when you consider that one convicted HGH user, Tim Montgomery, had earned $250,000 for running at the Grand Prix Final in Paris where he set the then 100m world record, just over $1300 a year is not very much for a highly successful elite athlete whose yearly income can run into the millions.

Medically a HGH user can run into some quite serious problems. Chief among these (but also by far the rarest) is a condition known as 'gigantism'. This can involve a skeletal thickening of the jaw bone and the fingers and toes. The actor Richard Kiel who played 'Jaws' in the James Bond films famously suffered with this affliction. Major organs can also become enlarged and blood pressure can be raised to dangerous levels, although definitive evidence to support these fears is lacking and experts maintain that a subject would have to take 100IU/day for 3 months in order to start experiencing these side effects. In addition to HGH, athletes use shots of insulin to stimulate muscle growth. This can cause diabetes or insulin resistance, which severely weakens the immune system.

Curiously though, ‘roid rage’ seems to be absent from those on HGH according to sources within bodybuilding. ‘Roid rage’ allegedly occurs from high levels of testosterone in the system and can provoke mood swings and aggression with anabolic steroids in particular conducive to the condition, hence the name. However clinically speaking the condition doesn’t seem to actually exist, tests with a placebo group and a steroid group found that those who were not on steroids proved the more aggressive.

The question of dosages has caused huge debates amongst the athletic and body building fraternity. Studies show that 8+ IU/day can produce water retention and joint pain, although with anything up to 4IU/day very little side effects have been discovered. Tellingly, during the 70’s and 80’s the Russians found that very low dosages proved most beneficial, typically only 1 or 2 IU/day. Current users however incorporate 2-4IU/day, a happy medium.

So who is on them?
We know Ben Johnson and Tim Montgomery were both on growth hormone by their own testimony and Victor Conte has said in an interview with ESPN Magazine that Marion Jones was one of the athletes he supplied with HGH,

“She (Jones) came to my room for a new piece of equipment I'd brought, a $1,000 NovoPen injector that looked like a Sharpie and can be used for human growth hormone. I needed to teach her how to use it. Marion wasn't the least bit nervous; she's always in control. She pulled the spandex of her bicycle shorts above her right thigh. She dialled up a dose of four-and-a-half units of growth hormone and injected it into her quadriceps”

Dwain Chambers, Kelli White and Chrystal Gaines among others have also been implicated by the head of BALCO and while none have tested positive for HGH, the evidence is out there and not only raises question marks about the athletes themselves but also training partners and coaches. In short, HGH is the drug of choice for many top athletes - and not just sprinters.

In 2003 many Australian distance runners left Said Aouita the Australian national coach due to him supposedly pushing HGH on his athletes in order to stay competitive within elite ranks. It seems the message is the same now as it was in the steroid fuelled 70’s and 80’s. Use or lose.

Credits
Editors: Luke Stott
Researchers: Luke Stott
pictures from: Sports Illustrated, Wikipedia
Other sources:
http://www.t-nation.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_growth_hormone
http://animalkits.haha.be/phpBB7/index.php
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/athens/track/2004-08-29-trevor-graham_x.htm
http://www.rajeun.net/buying.html
http://www.ergogenics.org/blc18.html

Interview: Wade Bennett- Jackson

Wade Bennett- Jackson has long been a marked man, since winning the European Youth Olympic 100m and 200m double the athletics world has expected great things from the Hammersmith born Belgravian. As part of arguably the most successful sprinter orientated athletics club Jackson has continued to improve under the tutorage of John Powell and while his most notable successes this last season have come indoors, Wade also gained a bronze medal in the European junior championships against the odds and is seen as one of the leading lights in Junior sprinting. GB:AP caught up with him..

Q. Why did you start athletics?
I started athletics because it was so easy to win, and I think I was actually unbeaten all the way through my first season in 2001, winning the English schools U15 100m title in the process! Winning that made me think…I'm the best out of all the schools in the country…WOW.

Q. When did u think to yourself in an athletics sense that "I’ve arrived as part of the elite" or have you not had that yet?
I arrived this year, dropping a 10.34 at AAA’s juniors, and showed immense leg speed late in the season to run 10.28w and 10.20w respectively. Also, bringing back a bronze medal against all the odds at the European juniors in Lithuania made me think, ‘yea! I can do anything on the day’.

Q. What aspects of training do you find hardest and what do u find most beneficial?
So far the most beneficial aspect of training is not to do too much. It sounds strange, but I liked knowing that when I needed to step up, that I would have lots of room for improvement. I am now stepping up this year, from 3 to 5 sessions a week. Winter training really does make you work hard, right to the limit. No matter how many winters you have done, when your dead on the floor feeling sick after a session, you start questioning whether its worth the pain. And believe me it is…

Q. What’s the best bit of advice you’ve ever been given in athletics?
I don’t actually know. But I am a firm believer in myself, and won’t let anything phase me. So id say that I give myself the best advice.

Q. Do you have any problems training with people who you often have to compete against, i.e. Matt Thomas, Andrew Matthews?
No, its really good motivation because even though its training there is still the competitive edge, and you want to win each rep. Plus it can also help you to cope with pressure in a race situation.

Q. Who do you feel will make the step up to World Senior Level in the future from the likes of Craig Pickering, Simeon Williamson, James Ellington including yourself etc.
I think we all have the potential to make it; we’ve just got to work hard and not take anything for granted on the way.

Q. What was it like winning the double at The European Youth Olympics, where you won the 100m, and 200m, breaking the 200m record in each round; do you feel it lifted the spirits of those who were with you?
I think it did, and it raised my spirits a lot, it made me feel as if I was capable of anything. It felt so good to run four PB’s in six races.

Q. Do you ever feel under too much pressure to deliver results after your success as a junior?
I don’t feel pressure, but I always pressure myself to perform. Next year there’s going to be more pressure on me as I will be the oldest in the age group, and I'm looking to win the world juniors next year in China.

Q. Are you a full time athlete? If so, what do you do during the day?
I am a fulltime athlete, and the days are pretty boring as everyone is at school or work. Throughout the day I'm looking to hydrate myself and eat properly, so that I’m in the best possible condition for training.

Q. Do you think you can be the no.1 sprinter in the UK ever?
I believe I can be the best sprinter this country has ever seen, and will have to work hard to be the worlds best sprinter ever! I will never limit myself and will strive for complete success. The UK record of 9.87 is definitely on the horizon, better still the world record of 9.77…I will never cease to give up until I’ve done everything I can to be the best.

Q. What is your ultimate goal in track?
My ultimate goal on track is to win the Olympics 2012 in a world record time. Iv been thinking about it since I was 14, and even more so since London won the bid!
Q. Do you have any back up plans in case athletics doesn’t work out, e.g. if you becomes injured?
Actually I don’t have a back up plan, but I have ideas in case I don’t make it in sport. I definitely want to be a sprints coach once I'm done. Hopefully I will have the experience and knowledge to be a successful coach and will be able to attract athletes of all calibres to aid them in being the best.

Q. What sort of work you do with McDonald’s?
I do promotional work, ‘It’s what you eat, and what you do’. I go into schools around the country and we do 60mins of exercise, sports hall style, and its actually good fun as the kids really enjoy getting active. I have met so many people and its great experience for the future. The McDonalds sweet chilli chicken sandwich is amazing…
Q. Ever done anything over 200? If so what pbs have you got?
Haha, yea I have done 300’s in training. With only a time of 37.8, due to me pacing myself so I can survive three reps! And I did my first ever 400m earlier this year in Peterborough, where I ran a time of 51.0…I was so dead after that race…

Q. What music do you listen to for motivation?
I listen to slow jams on the way to a competition, but then as soon as I start getting near, my Hip Hop comes on. When warm up comes, I have to listen to jungle…

Q. What do you do the night before a major race?
I eat very well, usually I have pizza or something. I also like to get my stuff ready and have the clothes I need out and ready for me to put straight on in the morning. I don’t go to bed early, I sleep at about 12-1am. If I'm sharing wit James Ellington we crack joke until the early hours!
Q. Do you have things like lucky socks, or undies, or spikes, You know the superstition thing?
I actually have these pair of boxers that I wear for the more important races. They have been very reliable since I bought them a few years ago, and are still going on strong!

Q. what sponsors have you had?
I had some sponsorship from View From and Puma early in my career back in 2002/3, but now I have got King Of Shaves, McDonalds, and Nike helping me out. They are all very good, and great to work with.

Q. 2006 seemed a good season with pb's being set both indoors and out, Talk us through the World Junior 100m Final, what would you of done differently if you could do it all again knowing what you know now?
A. I wouldn't change anything about my race, apart from the last 40m where i would relax and let my legs go through the motions, that would have done some serious damage...

Q. What has been your highlight for both the 2007/08 seasons?
A. No major highlights at all this year, just an eye opener for me, as i have been left in the dust recently. And its not a nice feeling.I am going to go out this winter hell bent on proving myself to everyone who has supported me.

Q. What can we expect from you in the future?
A. The future for me is a little blurred right now, as i have a few things to sort out, but personally i am always confident, and believe i will start by running something special over 60m this coming indoors...

Welcome To The New GB:AP

First and foremost, welcome to the new GB:AP.
GB:AP formally I.A.P (International Athlete Prospects) originally started back in winter 05' as a result from a discussion of friends. All being athletes from various countries, the idea for a website to showcase their talents was thought off before quickly expanding and showcasing various athletes through a range of medias including photographic, video and small interviews.

The website gradually became very U.K orientated with most of the contributions and site population originating on home soil, the decision was then made to switch I.A.P to GB:AP. Since the change the website grew rapidly focusing solely on home talent presenting up and coming athletes from across the board, amateur level right through to elite.

GB:AP remained strong through 06' compiling a strong platform of interviews and spotlight articles but also brought it's readers first hand experiences and views from the athletes travelling and competing in their respective events. 07' was a rocky year for GB:AP and eventually came to a stop through most of 08' due to the contributors having other commitments to attend.

09' however is a new season upon us and as the founder of GB:AP, i am willing to dedicate my time into GB:AP and build it back up to the site it used to be. Aiming once again to bring athletes alike together, new interviews & spotlights will be published including fresh in-house photography and event coverage throughout the year.

Enjoy the new GB:AP

Zachari Bach