The story was covered in these previous posts...
a) Jan 14th...Fagan faces ban for doping offence.
b) Jan 18th...Fagan gets ban
c) Jan 22nd...Sunday newspaper reaction
d) Jan 25th...TV debate on Fagan
This is obviously going to create a lot of debate in athletics circles. Some may say that he has served his sentence and he should be given another chance. Others will no doubt say that once he doped, he crossed a line from which there was no way back.
Update...See poll on the right hand side of the site. Should Martin Fagan make a return?
The interview on RTE radio can be heard here...
10 comments:
Maybe a poll John. I heard the interview and it was sad. The guy had a lot of personal problems to deal with and the pressures of being a full time runner (3 times a day running and training seven times a week) sounded crushing. The fact he couldn't get joy out of running a national half marathon said it all. That said he shouldn't really think about making a comeback to international running. Forgive the sinner and not the sin and all that. it would send terrible signals to younger sportspersons. That said I wish Martin all the best with getting the rest of his life back together. He seemed like a nice guy who made a bad mistake
The fault here was the structure which failed to protect and look after an athlete with the potential which Martin obviously had, Half in 1.01, Chicago Marathon at 2.11 pace with 1klm to go, this is the potential we are talking about here.
I say come back Martin. At the moment we have only Alister Cragg capable of operating at this level. We are too small a nation to ignore talent. We just need to protect them better, even if they are not perfect all round. He is a marketing dream for athletics with with coolness and talent. A rare combination!!
Considering we don't exactly have a huge pool of possible medal winners, I don't see why he can't go back running competively. It doesn't seem to be a problem in other countries, where athletes have been banned for taking drugs, done the time and come back and participated in events. Team GB didn't have a problem selecting David Millar for the cycling team in the Olympics. Look at Bezebah, he served a doping ban and came back to win the European XC in December, I didn’t see the Irish atheletes not running because of it. It may not be fair but the rules are the rules.
The big issue I see for Martin is whether other runners will be happy to compete against him in events, Lombard wasn’t exactly welcomed back with open arms after serving his ban. I am not sure if Martin has the mental strength to deal with the abuse/cold shoulders he is likely to get from fellow athletes if he does return.
A. Marketing dream!!!What kind I sport are you trying to promote. As talented and as decent a guy he sounds from the interviews he gave,he cheated took EPO and was caught.All we hav is his word that he didn't dope previous to that.
Let him back we all make mistakes.He deserves another go.
I wouldn't compare what Martin did with Lombard.
Lombard came from no where to suddenly running savage times and winning a national title. He took EPO to improve his performance and to cheat his way to the top that's why fellow athletes like I were so angry.
Martin did wrong don't get me wrong, but his personal life and may I add mental approach seriously suffered due to his on going injuries. I listened to his interview and watched TV programme where he spoke about what happened. To me he came across a very troubled young man, who couldn't handle the pressure of injuries which lead to his depression I felt sorry for him, to me he took EPO to try and get through his injuries rather than improve on a talent that we all know he has. Yes he was wrong to take EPO but I would be glad to see him back unlike Lombard when he came back to run national cross
Lads - taking drogs is cheeting and that it!!!! there is no question about it. nice guy or not - there no sympathy. Don't forget lads that he missed drog tests before so people shouldn't even be sorry about him. If athlete from any another country get cut cheeting we all are up and putting him down but if its our one then its okey to do so...... we all have pressure in life so just deal with it and not use drogs. good luck for Martin in his life but stay away from running - don't want to line up with him on start line.
we all make mistakes id line up with him.....throwing stones in glass houses and all that.........I'll shake his hand also for having the balls to say he was wrong and admitting it unlike a certain Cork athlete
I think he should run here in Ireland and not go back to the pressure furnace of Arizona.He would win all the marathons here.Limerick and Cork have course records which he would easily beat and the way Dublin was this year without the African elites he would win that too.If i was him i'd also consider the 5 and 10km races here in Ireland he'd have alot of fun with those.Its all there for him if he wants it.
Admit he was wrong?He was caught and said it was his first time :) Do you honestly think he ran that 61min half clean? He is back winning any road race where there is cash.He could even make Riot and take a clean athletes place if 4 guys make the 2.18 standard.Once a cheat always a cheat.
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