With the recent focus on the anti-doping whereabouts systems for athletes such as Christian Coleman and Salwa Eid Naser, speaking to an athlete with experience of the system seemed wise.

Dan Lawson isn’t your standard professional athlete, but after winning the European 24hr Championships in 2016 the Sussex native was popped onto a list with some of the more famous names. It was a shock to us at management level that our athlete would be included, but Dan took it into his stride. The very unique stride that it is.

Before getting into Dan’s own experience about how he managed to be at the right location for his hour 365 times in a year and also being tested seven times, let’s look at the system itself.

The way it works

Top tier athletes, from national level athletes to the likes of Olympic gold medallists and world champions, have to file their whereabouts with their national anti-doping body. For one hour a day they must give a location at which they are available for testing.  Their location is listed for the whole day, but the single hour is when they must be available for testing or fail their whereabouts.

Miss three tests in a twelve month period and you’re up for a ban. It’s pretty generous. As a clean athlete, you’d be horrified, but life happens and it can simply be a mistake.

Miss two tests (in just a 12 month period) and, as a clean athlete, you’d be absolutely gutted that it got so close. You’d make sure that there was zero chance of missing another.

Which is why when someone misses three tests we shouldn’t just put them down as disorganised, as someone who isn’t good at keeping a diary, but as someone who has an anti-doping rule violation. Just like we treat the other anti-doping rule violators. Two missed tests is generous, three is a triple get out of jail free card for a doper.

But they were tested 1000 times that year…

Why care about out of competition tests when some of these athletes are tested multiple times in competition each year?

They say that the in-competition test is more of an IQ test. With athletes and doctors knowing when they will likely be “glowing” (vulnerable to a positive test from a substance’s presence in their body), it’s relatively simple to not test positive on race day.

One imagines that even out of competition testing is a case of taking a small enough dose each evening, outside of the testing window, that it’s out of your system in the morning, so called “micro-dosing”.

So for anti-doping authorities to know where an athlete is, for one hour of every day, and be able to test them, isn’t really a huge ask for transparency.

Although some days Dan Lawson may have a tracker on him 24/7 when racing, the rest of the time it’s normally difficult for anyone to find him.

Bring in Mr. Lawson.

Dan Lawson, whilst an absolutely lovely human being, isn’t someone you’d imagine keeps a strict diary. As his coach I can say that the filling in of a training diary is a rare and unusual occurrence. He likes to sleep on the beach, spend months in a time in India and go on hours and hours of long runs on the trails.

“It wasn’t easy. It was actually really hard to keep everything up to date, especially when in places without good quality internet,” recalls Lawson.

In the course of 12 months on the whereabouts scheme the British international made sure he was in the right place, at the right time, for every one of his hour slots.

“At one point I was working at Glastonbury,” laughs the 24hr runner. “And the officers insisted they could go to the front gate and would be let in because they were drug testers. I was working 18 hour days so to make sure I was available I found a pub four miles from the festival and each lunch break I ran there, waited outside for an hour, then ran back.”

“They never came, but I always made sure I was there for the full hour. I actually lost some work because we couldn’t find a one hour slot for the whereabouts.”

Missed opportunities

Okay, so it was only one year for the then 45 year old amateur athlete, but there were still six out of competition tests within that year. One of those tests was in a rural area of India, but still Lawson was at the rather imaginatively named address when the anti-doping agent arrived. He always was.

“There was one time when someone offered me a last minute ticket to an England U17s game and I would loved to have gone, but the internet bandwidth in India wasn’t good enough to change at the last minute, so I missed out. I wasn’t taking any chances. Part of this was how a missed test would look on my whole 24hr team. I didn’t want to let my teammates down at all.”

If it was your professional job, as part of a career of being a full time athlete, then surely filling in your whereabouts is a sometimes arduous, but important part of that.

World class race walker Evan Dunfee puts it like this “Filling out whereabouts is definitely a chore, but it’s a tiny task in the grand scheme of what we sign up for as athletes.”

“I get that mistakes happen, they’ve happened to me,” says the Canadian, “and that those mistakes are more likely to burn you the more often you’re tested but unless everyone plays by the same rules the game just simply isn’t fair.”

So much so that you’d unlikely fuck it up not once, not twice, but three times in a calendar year. You’d make sure the system that alerted you to someone’s presence at the door was working or that you didn’t wander down the shops for your one hour a day.

Why we must see it like a failed test

Now think of this from a doper’s point of view. In the days of micro-dosing and new unknown substances, with the right medical team a cheating athlete might feel uncatchable. Add in the safety net of not one, but two missed tests. You never fail the test you don’t take.

Imagine if you’re doping and have all three strikes available for the 12 months ahead. You dope and instead of making sure you’re in the right place, make sure you’re not. “Oops, sorry I missed a test”.

If you’re a clean athlete, you accept the fact that three missed tests means you’re dirty. If you’re a dirty athlete you see the missed tests as a way out.

Even look at the difference in how athletes who miss tests are treated compared to those who fail for a recreational substance like cocaine or marijuana. If your choices are “get busted for EPO” or “get busted for poor diary keeping” you know which one looks better on the CV.

Maybe it’s different for individual athletes, but Lawson feels a strong responsibility for his team too. As a squad we have an UKAD anti-doping educator and try to help our athletes make informed choices around supplements.

Should we be harsher on those who miss tests?

We cannot simply say that those who miss three tests are doping. There are many factors at play and the real dopers will play into the fact that there is doubt in the system. They will appeal to the better nature of those who don’t feel the need to cheat.

One simple way is to treat those who commit anti-doping rule violations at the same level. It might seem harsh to compare someone caught taking all the drugs in the world to an athlete who wasn’t in the right place at the same time, but three missed tests in a 12 month period is quite generous.

There are flaws, and cases where the doping control officer has knocked at the wrong house or not stayed for the full hour, banging on the athlete’s door to make sure they make it home in time, but that is balanced out by stories of doping control officers calling ahead and the fact that most don’t want an athlete to miss their test. It’s their job to test them, not play hide and seek.

So next time someone describes the system as “unfair” and “overwhelming” when they miss three tests remember this: there’s 1000s of clean athletes who don’t find the whereabouts system too much to handle.

If  Dan Lawson can be in the right place, at the right time every day,  then trust me, no one should be missing three tests in a year unless they want to.

The post Three strikes and out appeared first on Fast Running.

With 200m ovals instead of 400m outdoors, plus six lanes instead of eight, spectators find themselves even closer to the stars of athletics. Not forgetting the short sprint events are over 60m instead of 100m so really do get to see who has the best start.

Mix it all up and with the louder confines, indoor racing can be one of the most enjoyable events to watch for running fans.

So what events have the potential to light up the Arena Birmingham?

Women’s 3000m

Final – Thursday 8:15pm

Reigning European Indoor 1500m and 3000m champion Laura Muir will begin her assault on a world double on the opening night in the straight 3000m final. Muir will not be alone in the GB vest and is joined by Eilish McColgan.

The Scottish duo finished one and two over the distance at the recent British Championships with McColgan also winning 1500m gold that weekend.

Defending champion Genzebe Dibaba and world indoor 1500m champion Sifan Hassan join the British pair in doubling up in two events, while, 5000m gold medalist at London 2017 Hellen Obiri is also a contender.

RELATED: Laura Muir: No slacking, no fear, no compromise

Also not to be discounted on the opening night of athletics is the young German talent Konstanze Klosterhalfen and USA’s Shelby Houlihan.

Men’s 1500m

Heats – Saturday 11:10am, Final – Sunday 4:12pm

Jake Wightman knows what it takes to win in Birmingham after clinching the British 1500m crown last month.

Chris O’Hare was a late withdrawal that day due to a foot problem but provided the Wanamaker Mile champion has recovered the British pair are podium potential.

Standing in their way though, are a host of formidable rivals including the fastest man this year Ayanleh Souleiman. The Djibouti athlete was a gold medalist in 2014 and is joined by the man he beat that year Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider, who was champion in 2012.

The field also includes Ethiopia’s Taresa Tolosa, Kenya’s Vincent Kibet and Australian Ryan Gregson.

Men’s 60m

Heats – Saturday 10:15am, Semi-finals – Saturday 7:11pm, Final – Saturday 9:09pm

The world’s fastest man over 60m Christian Coleman will walk into the Birmingham Arena full of confidence after his record-breaking performance last month.

That night in Albuquerque the world 100m silver medalist clocked an electric 6.34, and it will be difficult to see past the American winning a first world gold medal.

However, there is a host of able men ready to challenge including Britain’s CJ Ujah and China’s Su Bingtian.

World relay gold medalist Ujah won the British indoor title last month and Bingtian broke the Asian 60m record recently. It should be a battle not to be missed.

Women’s 1500m

Heats – Friday 7:42pm, Final – Saturday 8:39pm

Providing the big names make it through fully fit and unscathed from the 3000m on Thursday night the women’s 1500m has the potential to be fire.

The heats get underway on Friday night with the final on Saturday and joining GB’s Muir, Dibaba, Hassan and McColgan is Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech, who is the second fastest this year behind Ethiopia’s Dibaba.

Elsewhere Ireland’s Ciara Mageean will be out to impress after the disappointment of London 2017.

Men’s 3000m

Heats – Friday 12:50pm, Final – Sunday 3:35pm

Ethiopia’s exciting young talent Selemon Barega aims to become the youngest ever world indoor champion in the men’s 3000m. The fifth-place finisher over 5000m at last year’s World Championships lines up with compatriots Hagos Gebrhiwet and Yomif Kejelcha, the latter the defending champion.

Ready to take on the Ethiopian trio is USA’s Paul Chelimo who finished second last weekend by 0.01 at the Muller Grand Prix Glasgow.

Also in the mix will be Kenya’s Davis Kiplangat and Bethwell Birgen as well as Morocco’s Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Abdalaati Iguider.

British interest will come from Jonny Davies, with the 23-year-old running a 7:50.18 best in Boston in February over the distance.

Women’s 60m

Heats – Friday 10:35am, Semi-finals – Friday 6:50pm, Final – Friday 9:38pm

GB’s Asha Philip has been in excellent form this season and has the potential to win world gold in Birmingham.The European indoor champion will be joined by the impressive winner in Glasgow last week Marie Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast.

Double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson is the reigning bronze medalist but hasn’t been at her best so far this season. However, the Jamaican can always deliver when it matters and shouldn’t be discounted from taking gold, while silver medalist in 2016 Dafne Schippers will be right in the mix too.

Britain’s Bianca Williams will also hope to impress after a late call-up, and after setting a new Irish record last month Amy Foster is ready for the world stage with fellow Irish sprinter Ciara Neville.

Women’s 400m

Heats – Friday 12:10pm, Semi-finals – Friday 8:32pm, Final – Saturday 8:05pm

British duo Eilidh Doyle and Zoey Clark will provide the big interest for home supporters in Birmingham, while Ireland’s hopes will rest with Phil Healy.

400m hurdler specialist Doyle is the sixth fastest this year over the flat, while Irish sprinter Healy is the seventh fastest after making the step up this season from the shorter distances.

Clark herself broke the Scottish 200m record this year and has posted the eighth fastest time over 400m in 2018.

While that provides the interest for British and Irish fans, it’s hard to see past a USA one-two from Courtney Okolo and Shakima Wimbley.

The American athletes are the fastest over the distance this season, but will also be joined by IAAF World Indoor Tour winner Lea Sprunger of Switzerland in the hunt for indoor gold.

How to watch

For viewers in the UK, the BBC will have full coverage that gets underway at 7.00pm on Thursday on BBC 2.

A timetable of events can be found here and information on how you can watch the action outside of the UK is available here.

The post Why you should not miss the World Indoors Champs appeared first on Fast Running.

After one sprinter was eliminated for a false start in the Albuquerque final the field got away with Coleman sprinting to an eye-watering 6.34 clocking. His time takes 0.05 off Maurice Greene’s 6.39 best.

“I wanted to go get it, but it pretty much felt like a blur,” the 21-year-old told the IAAF afterwards. “I just wanted to be the first to get to the finish line. I had put in a lot of work on my start, so it feels pretty good to do it.”

#USATFindoors ends with @__Coleman’s 6.34 record! #MoveOverMo pic.twitter.com/iiNbrgfQl3

— USATF (@usatf) February 19, 2018

Coleman, who finished behind compatriot Justin Gatlin to win 100m silver in the World Championships last summer, ran 6.37 seconds at an indoor meet in South Carolina on January 19, but it was not ratified as a world record.

The Clemson Invitational sprint did not meet all of the requirements because the starting blocks were not wired and drug testing was not carried out immediately after the race.

This time around a relaxed Coleman clocked 6.46 in Saturday’s heat before running 6.42 in Sunday’s semi-final setting up the final later that evening with defending US champion Ronnie Baker and he truly delivered.

This time Coleman has tweeted “Official 60m WR holder!!” a couple of hours after the event.

Coleman is now a firm favourite for the men’s 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships in March.

The post Christian Coleman breaks 60m world record appeared first on Fast Running.

The 21-year-old sprinter, who finished behind compatriot Justin Gatlin to win 100m silver in the World Championships last summer, ran 6.37 seconds at an indoor meet in South Carolina.

“World record, 6.37s. Great start to my career. Thank you God,” Coleman tweeted after his record-breaking performance.

The world record was previously held by Maurice Greene (USA) at 6.39, who went on to break the world 100m record and win two golds at the Sydney Olympics for 100m and 4 x 100m.

Coleman, who improved his previous 60m best of 6.45, is expected to compete at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham this March.

WORLD RECORD!! 6.37s. Great start to my career. Thank You God pic.twitter.com/fUZQEpuPgw

— Christian Coleman (@__coleman) January 20, 2018

As is the normal procedure, the world record is subject to ratification by the IAAF.

The post Christian Coleman breaks 60m indoor world record appeared first on Fast Running.