Translated material
After a fist fight
Europe is jealous of the achievements of the Russians at the championship in Gothenburg
As soon as the triumphant European Championships in Gothenburg for Russia ended, where our athletes won 12 gold medals and a total of 34 medals of various denominations, the President of the Spanish Athletics Federation, Jose Maria Odriozola, immediately questioned this success. He stated that he has information confirming the fact that Russians are using illegal drugs. Odriozola promised to develop his idea at the council of the International Athletics Federation at the end of August.So far, the statements of this sports official look like unfounded accusations. Even the facts he cites based on the results of Euro 2006 do not stand up to criticism. For example, the Spaniard insists that the winner of the 10,000 m race, Inga Abitova, dropped almost a full minute from her personal best and that such progress allegedly cannot be achieved without the use of doping. However, Odriozola either does not know or deliberately forgets that Abitova ran the 10-kilometer distance only a few times before Gothenburg, and the improvement of her results in this discipline should be perceived as an absolutely normal phenomenon.
There are already reports coming from Sweden about local police findings that allegedly indirectly indicate the involvement of European Championship participants in doping. Near the hotel where the athletes lived, two bags with syringes, needles, liquid of unknown origin, and medical equipment for blood transfusion were found. Moreover, one of the packages and some syringes allegedly have inscriptions in Russian.
So far, all this resembles a bad director’s provocation. Why on earth did the Swedish police suddenly take on the role of scavengers, rummaging through street rubbish, and really, couldn’t the syringes belong to local drug addicts, of whom there are a great many in Western Europe? And there is absolutely no evidence that the things found were not planted and were the property of someone from our delegation.
This whole campaign is undoubtedly caused by envy of the achievements of our athletes. Moreover, unlike most European teams, Russia does not use naturalized Africans in its composition. And this phenomenon has recently taken on significant proportions. In terms of scale, it can only be compared with the situation in table tennis, where medals at continental championships are often won by Chinese who migrated to the Old World.
The strongest sprinter in Europe, Francis Obikwelu, lived in Nigeria until he was 16; another participant in the 100-meter final, Roland Ponnon (France), was born on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. His compatriot, 400m bronze medalist Leslie John, is from Ivory Coast, 5000m silver medalist Mohammed Farah (Great Britain) was born in Somalia, long jump winner Andrew Howe (Italy) - American by birth. The continental champion in pole vaulting, Israeli Alexander Averbukh, was once the winner of the Russian championship in decathlon and aerobics.
In adulthood, famous stayers Ethiopian Elvan Abeylegesse (Turkey) and Kenyan Lorna Kiplagat (Holland), legendary Jamaican sprinter Merlin Otti (Slovenia), all-around athlete from Sierra Leone Eunice Barber (France), Cuban long jumper Nyurka Montalvo ( Spain). This list goes on and on. Perhaps, if it were not for the Russians and a group of Swedish jumpers, then one could talk about nothing less than the decline of European athletics in its pure form.
Let us note that representatives of Africa and America do not meet only in strength disciplines at domestic competitions in the Old World. It has been proven that there are significant differences in the structure of muscle fibers between African Americans and white people. Thanks to the natural characteristics of the body, dark-skinned athletes are better at long jumping, running short distances, and if we are talking about Kenyans or Ethiopians, then their superiority in distance running is obvious.