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By Parker Morse
Race directors of the five World Marathon Majors spoke to the media by teleconference yesterday to discuss their series in advance of the fall races, which will include the real,- Berlin Marathon on September 24, the LaSalle Bank Chigago Marathon on October 22, and the ING New York City Marathon on November 5. The five made it clear that in its first year, the bloc of major marathons was weilding their combined influence in an effort to effect positive change outside their own events.
Flora London Marathon Race Director David Bedford noted that they didn't want the teleconference to be entirely about doping, but the summer's news about sprinters Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones, as well as cyclist Floyd Landis, meant the Majors' statement earlier this summer about a zero-tolerance policy for athletes penalized by the IAAF was a major topic of conversation.
"The time to believe that education is the way forward is gone," said Bedford, "and the only thing with a chance of having an impact is significantly higher penalties." The policy put forward by the Majors is that any athlete who has been suspended for more than three months by the IAAF at any time in their career (in other words, anyone penalized for a major infraction, or a second offense of a minor infraction,) is not welcome at their events. The effect is that of a lifetime ban from the Majors.
"The majority of runners who have been found positive have taken the view that a two-year ban can't be that serious, and that the sport doesn't care that much," explained Bedford. "[But] it's pretty clear that it does matter." ING New York City Marathon Race Director Mary Wittenberg expanded, "We are lobbying the IAAF to expand the current two-year ban to a four-year ban, and we are working with the IAAF to lobby our national governments" for stricter laws regarding performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
The race directors addressed other issues facing the sport. Bedford, Wittenberg, and Chicago's Executive Race Director, Carey Pinkowski, discussed their races' withdrawl from AIMS, the international marathon and road race organization. Bedford noted that London's Nick Bitel was a board member of AIMS, and come to the conclusion that change from within was impossible with AIMS. "We came to the conclusion that it was not appropriate for us to belong to an organization that had a constitution and ignored it, and worse," said Bedford, without going into details of AIMS' troubles.
Regarding competition both in the races and between them, the executives noted that athletes currently atop the Majors leader board are largely racing in the fall, and that other top athletes like Paul Tergat and Haile Gebrselassie were making plans to get a place on the leader board in the fall, with Tergat racing in New York and Gebrselassie in Berlin. "There's an added incentive for the athletes, an added-value that helps in the process," said Pinkowski.
The comparison of times between races, the use of male rabbits in women's races, and the continuing use of varied uniforms to differentiate elite athletes within the races, and consideration of a standardized code of conduct for athletes were also discussed.
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