www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/11285757/Athletics-doping-scandal-where-the-suspected-athletes-come-from.html
Two Japanese athletes included.
Two Japanese athletes included.
While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Comments
Correct me if I am wrong, but this was leading up to the London Olympics, right? The London Olympics were a resounding failure for Japan, so if there was doping going on, they were obviously not doing it very well.
I can only think of one athlete from Japan who might be doping. The thing is though, the kind of drug that they potentially could be using does not affect their blood values and cannot be detected presently, so it is probably the right thing to take.