Sport is made for betting

Just three weeks left until boathlon season starts and long-time readers of my blog will know my fascination with the sport. It really is a brilliant sport for betting in-running, especially the sprint and individual disciplines (there are five different types of races). Once the season gets underway, I'll get into explaining more about it. Feel free to go back into my archives from last winter to read about it. The Winter Olympics are in February, so it's worth learning about it. The two female Russian drug cheats from last season, Albina Akhatova and Yekaterina Iourieva, have lost their appeal against two-year doping bans. CAS dismisses Russian biathletes' doping appeals And so they should have to.

Fair play to the IOC for being proactive and wanting to avoid any match-fixing scandals from ever tainting an Olympic Games. But it's a bit rich to single out betting as the evil one when over the years there have been numerous suspicious judging decisions in athletics, boxing and other sports to satisfy political agendas. Not to mention the old junkets and favours which used to be exchanged in order to succeed with a bid to host the Games. IOC sets up system to watch for illegal betting At last year's Beijing Games, the IOC used a system set up by FIFA for soccer to watch for irregular betting on Olympic competitions. The monitoring found that a wide array of bets were offered for all Olympic sports, but that bets laid were generally small — between $7 to $70, the IOC says. It says there were no cases of irregular betting. Firstly the title of the article is wrong - you can't 'monitor' illegal betting, the whole point of black market betting is that it's untrac...

They're at it again. After three leading Russian biathletes were busted for it back in February, now it''s the turn of the cross-country skiers to cheat the system and get caught. Three Russian skiers test positive for EPO Two of the three athletes were Olympic gold medallists as well, and conveniently, they will both now retire - probably to a hero's farewell. Winter sports need to take a hardline stance like weightlifting - multiple failed drug tests leads to that country being barred from major competitions. Until that happens, this ugly cycle will continue. And any athlete who tests positive to the more serious drugs, such as steroids and EPO, should all their previous achievements wiped from the record books.

It's hard to top what happened in Berlin last night - how can you top a freak like Usain Bolt who can be so cheesy and relaxed moments before the race and then just blow everyone away? It's women's 100m night tonight. Unfortunately, there's no hope of the women setting many world records any time soon as most of their records have been set by blatant drug cheats - the eastern bloc regime in the 80s and early 90s, or Flo Jo in the early 80s. The only woman to get anywhere near FloJo's times has been supposed freak athlete Marion Jones... and then it turned out she was on the juice as well. FloJo might never have tested positive, but neither did most of the East Germans - and when someone dies in their sleep of a heart attack at 38, and retires the day after out-of-competition drug testing was brought in... well, you make up your own mind. The only women's records which have gone in recent years have been in new events (steeplechase, pole vault), where the African...

Well, it might explain his erratic performances. French star Gasquet fails drugs test So talented, but so flawed. Oh well, won't be seeing him on the circuit for a while then....

Breaking story again in biathlon. The Russians are still in the news despite the season having just finished. Two more Russian biathletes are alleged to have failed drug tests, for the same substance which caught three of them back in February . This time it is believed to be one man and one woman, from testing at the Russian National Championships. According to Norwegian press sources, the positive tests have been confirmed by French testing officials. If this is true, will the Russians actually have anyone left to compete in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics? The sad fact is that biathlon needs Russia so even if the IBU had the power to kick them out completely, it's highly unlikely they would. But every Russian biathlete from here on is massively tainted by the actions of their peers and team entourage. The amazing part of this story is that the cheats were caught at a local event, and apparently, by a Russian agency. Perhaps they are getting serious after all. UPDATE - Named a...

New story in the Norwegian press this morning - the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has sent a text message to Swedish biathlete Mattias Nilsson Jr (who commented on his blog about his disgust for the Russian drug cheats) promising that Russia would make a stance against doping in biathlon. As a follow-up to that, the heads of the Russian biathlon team have asked IBU president Besseberg for help in cleaning it up. Now I can believe a president making an effort to get things changed, it's highly unlikely he had any involvement in encouraging the cheating. But for the heads of an organisation with systematic drug-taking to call for assistance in cleaning up THEIR MESS, that's utter crap. The first (and only) step they can make to cleaning it up is resign in disgrace. These are the same people who screamed their athletes were innocent just a week ago and sent them to Pyeong Chang knowing full well the B-samples would be positive as well. And then wanted to take a petty protest a...

So to all the Russian readers who sent me abuse for releasing the story before it was confirmed.... take your blinkers off and wake up to the real world. Russian newscentre VES believes that the testing in Lausanne has returned three positive B samples for a variety of EPO, initially believed to be CERA. The hall of shame: Albina Akhatova Ekaterina Iourieva Dmitry Yaroshenko The announcement from the International Biathlon Union is believed to be imminent. May they never grace a biathlon competition again. There is no place in professional sports for drug cheats. "We are facing systematic doping at the large scale in one of the strongest teams of the world," IBU President Anders Besseberg told reporters in the eastern resort town of Pyeongchang. "Either we have been able to catch them all, or we have only seen the top of the ice mountain," he said. "There is no, absolutely no, excuse for what the three doped Russian athletes and the people behind them have done...

Delusional, endemic or just plain corrupt? The Russian Federation's answer to the three positive tests in biathlon is "These drugs aren't on your banned list, so we can't be suspended". CERA is a new form of EPO, the biggest illegal drug in endurance sport which now has 10 varieties. This particular variety is not on the banned list yet, so the Russians have sent all their team to Korea for next week's World Championships, claiming they can't be banned. "Our scientists are better than your scientists!". This isn't a cough medicine or asthma medication, this is a drug developed purely to cheat. How many Russian athletes are going to end up dead before they turn 40 because their body has been systematically infested by man-made drugs? Virtually every women's world record in athletics has the massive tarnish of drugs cheat on it, certainly every record set more than 10 years ago, of which there are plenty. Why are none of these records remot...

Let's start by saying that no result is official, only the A-tests have come back positive and all athletes are entitled to have their B-sample analysed before being declared guilty. But it appears the Russians are in total denial that they are doing anything wrong. Swedish biathlete Matthias Nilsson Jr commented on his blog "why is anybody surprised? The rest of the team will just continue as usual" and was bombarded with threats such as 'We'll be waiting for you in Khanty Mansiysk' (Russian venue for Biathlon World Cup event next month, and 'I hope you die from cancer'. Charming chaps. Anything to justify serial cheating. The comments and abuse have been picked up by various Scandinavian media channels. I copped a bunch of anonymous comments in Russian which meant nothing to me, followed by some abuse in English as well. Hence comments are now moderated... Biathlon authorities are hopeful that the B-tests will be processed in time for the World Champ...

The Russians are at it again. Thinking it's 1981 and they can get away with whatever they like. Training camps being held at short notice in remote parts of Russia where WADA officials can't get visas without waiting for three months, almost no local testing etc. Shoddy, and they've been caught for it. No articles yet with the news in English, but numerous others in various languages via NewsNow The IBU aren't releasing names as yet, but reports link the failed tests to Akhatova, Iourieva and Yarochenko. It's a real shame the Russians have to stoop to such depths when some of their star athletes look like this! The World Championships start next weekend. Did they really think they could get away with it? It's time biathlon brought in a rule like weightlifting where repeated positive tests from the one nation kicks everyone from that country out. Otherwise biathlon will become as tarnished as cycling, and nobody wants to see that....

OnThePunt.com is reporting some significant bets going on Geelong to win the 2009 AFL Premiership on the back of rumours of a player being suspended on a drug test (three strikes and you're out is the policy). No names mentioned as yet, but it can only be a big name from their main rival, reigning premiers Hawthorn. I'd have a guess at who the player is but I don't want to deal with lawyers and a libel case. No major moves on Betfair yet, but OTP is usually on the money with these things so chances are this story has legs...