The Race That Will Not Stop

      After concerns a plenty about the readiness of the Delhi Commonwealth Games, in general it has gone better than I would of thought.  The swimmers getting a stomach bug being called 'Delhi Belly', the lack of crowds and then crowds which don't know when to be silent.  The problems on the whole have been minor, it was very disappointing to watch the cycling road races happen without many spectators watching it due to over zealous road blockages.  The daft mistake was the 10m diving board which was found to be 70cm to high.  But for me there has been one race which has ultimately grabbed my attention, the women's 100m race.  Just when we though it was all over and it had had more than its fair share of the limelight, it decided it wanted some more.

       Commonwealth Games women's 100m gold medal winner Damola Osayomi has failed a drugs test.  Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell said Osayomi had asked for her B sample to be tested and a hearing would be held later on today, Monday.  The Nigerian, 24, was named champion on Thursday after Australia's Sally Pearson was controversially disqualified for a false start.  It is the first negative test of the Games in Delhi.

 

       I am sure that most of you will know some of the details but I will just go over them quickly.  The race started controversially when English sprinter Laura Turner was shown a red card for false starting despite claiming that noise from the stadium was putting her off.  However, the electronic timing system also flagged up a false start by Pearson but Pearson and Turner both ran the race and Pearson ended up winning the race.  But with Katherine Endacott finishing fourth and facing the prospect of winning a bronze, the English decided to launch a protest.

 

       Now if the B sample is also positive Damola Osayomi will be disqualified and Natasha Mayers who finished third in the actual race will be promoted to Gold with Katherine Endacott gaining a Solver and Bertille Delphine Atangana will gain a bronze.  Osayomi showed traces of a banned substance called methylhexaneamine, which has only recently been added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list.

 

      There is one piece of information that I have left to last, when asked about what happened at the start and about Pearson's disqualification Damola Osayomi said "Something went wrong with the start, I don't know why they allow people to participate in the competition if they cannot follow the rules."  To have to this quote in its new context is just one massive form karma and nearly made me piss myself.