Athletics Ireland and the Irish Sports Council made the following announcement...."The Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel has determined that Martin Fagan, an athlete affiliated to Athletics Ireland, has committed an anti-doping rule violation. The Panel found that, contrary to Article 2.1 of the Irish Anti-Doping Rules, Mr Fagan, tested positive for the presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolite or marker, recombinant erythropoietin, in a sample of his urine collected on behalf of the Irish Sports Council during out of competition testing at Tucson, Arizona on the 10th December 2011. Mr Fagan has been sanctioned, subject to his right to appeal within 14 days, by the imposition on him of a period of ineligibility for two years. The Panel has decided that because of the prompt admission of the violation by Mr Fagan the appropriate commencement date for the period of ineligibility is 10th December 2011, the date on which the sample was collected."
Ian O'Riordan of the Irish Times has a piece about it HERE
Cliona Foley of the Irish Independent has a more critical article HERE
Since this story broke last weekend, there has been a lot of reaction to it on various websites. Some people have been sympathetic to Martin Fagan and his fight with depression, some have been outrightly hostile to him over his taking of EPO while others believe perhaps naively that he will serve the two year ban and all will be well again.
Once an athlete takes a performance-enhancing drug, they have crossed the Rubicon, there is no turning back. The ban might be for two years but the damage is permanent. I would suspect that if you were to talk privately to the powers that be within Athletics Ireland or the Irish Sports Council, they would probably say that they genuinely wish Martin Fagan all the best for the future, that he gets help and gets his personal life sorted out. However when it comes to athletics, they would hope that he would retire from the sport and fade away.
10 comments:
Good to find an athlete who is honest about his struggles and his desperate attempt to cheat.
Can only be good for younger athletes to be aware off - refreshing honesty when you consider the professional cycling cheats.
I think the guy must be really suffering, and there's no point in us putting the boot in any further.
Effectively, it sounds like his running career is over, so he's paying the price for what he did.
honesty? serious? ..... could you imagine a teacher standing up in front of his pupils admitting he/she cheated in his leaving cert and expecting his pupils to see him as a role model ?
hear hear to the first comment!
I read Ian O'Riordan's interview on Irish Times and it was heart rending. Martin was in a very lonely & dangerous place. I hope Martin manages to get his mental health sorted and qualifies for 2016 Olympics when he'll be only 32 years of age.
The most important thing is for him to get the help he needs. His motivation to run seems to have disappeared and in fact he appears happier now that his career may be over. I hope he sorts himself out.
In reply to: "honesty? serious? ..... could you imagine a teacher standing up in front of his pupils admitting he/she cheated in his leaving cert and expecting his pupils to see him as a role model ?"
Your comment makes no sense.
If the teacher had been exposed as a cheat and they denied it, would that be better?
i wrote the teacher comment. my point was that fagan is a cheat and a drug user and is a disgrace to his profession. a writer in the comments said he should be some sort of role model for younger athletes because of his "honesty"? are they for real!!
if a teacher behaved like fagan did (in a class room situation) i couldn't imagine anyone calling that teacher a role model
re: teacher comment
you are not making much sense - I wrote the first comment :
i.e it is good for younger athletes to be aware of the lonliness and mental struggles of a professional athlete so close and yet so far from making it to olympics. Fagan has been very honest about his depression and his bungled attempt at EPO (which was never going to work anyways).
This is honesty - as raw as you can get it - donno what your definition is but from your ramblings about teachers and clasrooms i don't think I would understand it...
maybe school wasn't your thing ;-)
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