- Rosie Ruiz she ain’t, but former Chicago and Boston
Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo is disgraced all the same now that she’s had her
doping ban doubled to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The
Kenyan star had already been stripped of her 2014 Chicago victory, but the
story got oh, so much worse for her when
the CAS judging panel stripped her of her 2014 win in Boston, plus
results, prize and appearance money dating back to April 17, 2014. That means
she won't earn a $500,000 bonus for leading the World Marathon Majors series
standings for the combined 2013 and 2014 seasons, which is a risk you run when
you inject erythropoietin, a red-blood-cell-boosting hormone, into your body in
a blatant attempt to gain a competitive edge. Jeptoo tested positive for
erythropoietin in a September 2014 sample given during training for the Chicago
race and the CAS panel said it upheld the International Association of
Athletics Federations' appeal to increase Jeptoo's original two-year ban, which
was imposed by Athletics Kenya and was to expire this week. Now, a woman who
won back-to-back Boston and Chicago titles in 2013 is a black mark on the
entire sport of distance running, having had her punishment expanded under the
condition that athletes can be banned for four years over a first offense if
there are "aggravating circumstances.” In explaining its decision, CAS
laid the smack down on Jeptoo. “A [It] was obvious to the panel that the
athlete used EPO as part of a scheme or plan," the panel ruled, citing
evidence such as her long relationship with the unidentified doctor and
"multiple visits to see him" that she hid from her manager and coach.
Lots of luck never running competitively again anywhere outside of a local
Turkey Trot 5K race, Rita……..
- Vindictive much, Australia? The Aussies are generally
viewed as a party-loving group of cool people who bring the fun wherever they
go, but that’s going to change quickly if the land Down Under keeps up sh*t
like this. Over the weekend, the country that doubles as a continent announced
plans to ratchet up its tough policy against refugees by banning any asylum
seeker who attempts to reach its shores by boat from ever visiting the country.
A previous regime introduced a policy on July 19, 2013, banning refugees who
arrive by boat from Indonesian ports after that date from ever being resettled
in Australia, but things would get kicked up a notch under legislation to be
introduced to Parliament next week - legislation mandating that thousands of
asylum seekers who have returned to their homelands in the Middle East, Africa
and Asia be banned for life from ever traveling to Australia as tourists, to do
business or as an Australian's spouse. "You need the clearest of clear
messages," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said. "This is a battle of
will between the Australian people, represented by their government, and these
criminal gangs of people smugglers. You should not under estimate the scale of
the threat.” Yes, because banning someone fleeing a tyrannical regime in search
of a new life who is then forced to return home but later marries an Aussie
should NOT be allowed to breach your shores. Then again, is anyone really
surprised, given that Australia has paid the poor Pacific nations of Nauru and
Papua New Guinea to keep asylum seekers in camps since the 2013 policy came
into force? This far-reaching new policy would apply to all asylum seekers who
have attempted to reach Australia since July 19, 2013. It’s a punitive measure
decried by human rights groups, but Australia seems intent on making it happen……..
- Someone has gotten too big for their reality karaoke TV
show roots, eh James Arthur? Arthur, who became a quasi-famous person in the
United Kingdom when he won the ninth season of the British version of “X Factor
Karaoke” in 2012, apparently feels he’s now too good for the reality genre,
claiming that he turned down a “life-changing” amount of money to appear on
“Celebrity Big Brother” during the first of his sure-to-be-many career lulls.
The Middlesbrough-born singer four years removed from besting a bunch of other
aspiring karaoke-ers and his debut single, riding that reality karaoke high and
the relentless wave of promotion that record labels put behind it, reached the
top of the British pop charts. Unfortunately for him - but fortunately for fans
of good music - his reputation as an unreliable prima donna and loudmouth led
to him issuing a disingenuous public apology after using homophobic lyrics in a
diss track aimed at a rapper called Micky Worthless. “I got offered loads of
reality shows including I’m A Celebrity and Celebrity Big Brother,” Arthur
said. “They were life-changing amounts of money. The most I got offered was
250,000 pounds for CBB, which I really needed at the time, not knowing if I had
a career. I’m a huge fan of those shows but I don’t think there’s any chance I
would be back at Number One now if I’d gone down that route.” Tell yourself
what you want, J., but ultimately, you are who you are and you can't change
where you came from…….
- Sometimes, you have to cause a minor terrorism scare and
inconvenience hundreds of people in order to keep a promise to a friend. There
is at least one man in the greater Manhattan area who not only knows that
truth, but lives it. He’s the person you may know was causing the cancelation
of two scheduled performances at New York City's renowned Metropolitan Opera
and inciting the NYPD counterterrorism unit to storm the iconic venue because he
sprinkled a powdery substance into the orchestra pit during the second
intermission of Rossini's "Guillaume Tell," when most of the
musicians were not present. According to investigators, the man was in front of
the first row of seats when he sprinkled the ashes of a friend who was his
mentor in the opera. John Miller, the New York Police Department's deputy
commissioner in charge of intelligence and counterterrorism, said several
audience members claimed the man told them he was there to sprinkle the ashes
of a friend and while the disposal of ashes at an opera house may violate city
codes, police don’t believe there was anything criminal in the act. Don’t tell
that to the audience for the interrupted show or the canceled one that was to
follow. Some audience members booed when the cancellation was announced and one
man chanted, "I want my money back, I want my money back." Unfortunately,
he was a loser unable to inspire a following and no one joined in. But hey, all
anyone missed was an opera about folk hero William Tell that had not been
performed at the Met in more than 80 years before this season, so it’s not as
if lives were ruined or the course of humanity was irrevocably altered………
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