London 2012: LaShawn Merritt aiming to bury tarnished gold at Olympics - The Guardian
LaShawn Merritt could not have known when he bought penis enhancement pills over the counter from a local convenience store in Bradenton, Florida, that his embarrassment would go global. "It was more energy-wise," the American Olympic 400 metres champion says, suppressing a guilty smile when explaining his purchase of a product that contained the banned substance Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and which led to his suspension for 21 months.
"[There] was a condom and right beside it was [ExtenZe]. It was a 'boom boom', went-home-type deal. It was a poor judgment call from me. If I'd looked on the back and saw that the label [said] DHEA, I definitely wouldn't have taken it. I'd never think in a million years that I could buy something from a 7/11 and test positive for track and field."
Nor be asked to explain why he bought it in the first place. "Embarrassment was an initial reaction for a minute," he said, "but, when I thought about it, I'm pretty sure there's more than a couple of men here who've taken it. But I'm a pro athlete so I just forgot that part. When I was picking it up, I wasn't thinking about anything. It was just 'boom boom', to the house."
And now it's "boom boom" to the Olympics and Merritt is back in the big time. He is the first banned gold medallist to defend his title, a dubious distinction that does not sit well with Dai Greene, who says he will make his displeasure known if they meet in London. "If I'm in the relay team and we reach the final then there's every chance we'll be lining up against Merritt," the Welsh hurdler says. "I'll tell you now, I'll happily go and find him at the start and tell him to his face, 'You're a cheat and you shouldn't be here'."
Merritt is cool about that. "I have read [what Greene said] and I put it down and kept on about my business," he says. "I just looked at it as somebody else's opinion – it was, honestly, just nothing."
Was he interested in replying to Greene? "You know what, not really but, if we line up, we'll go at it like anyone else. If we get together in the four by four, I'm gonna do my job and he's going to do his job and USA are gonna bring the gold home. It is a little motivating but I've always been motivated without saying anything to anyone. This is what I love to do. If I didn't say a word all year I'd still be as confident."
You tend to believe him. Merritt has a quiet aura, one derived from natural talent and an admirable work ethic – although there are plenty of people in his sport who side with Greene. "There may be people here who think the same thing," he said at the US Olympic team media summit in Dallas. "People think what they think, but I have nothing to do with it. I have to continue to do what I do and that's work hard and show up."
He certainly showed up at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, two weeks ago when he ran 44.91 seconds to beat a field that included the rising Grenadian Kirani James. The teenager, who beat Merritt on his return to international athletics at the world championships in Daegu last year in 44.60, false-started in the Prefontaine race but ran it anyway – and finished just a stride behind Merritt. Merritt also beat his fellow American Jeremy Wariner, the 2004 Olympic champion, as well as the twice Olympic 400m hurdling gold medallist Angelo Taylor and the Jamaican Chris Brown.
Wariner and Merritt will meet in the final US trials, starting on Friday. "He's a threat every time he steps on the track," Merritt says. "You respect your co-workers because you know how hard it is. But we're fighting for the same position."
It would, nonetheless, be a major shock if Merritt does not make it to London – although he wishes there was one other member of his family there to see him run. His older brother, Antwan, died in mysterious circumstances at college 13 years ago, and LaShawn to this day is not satisfied that justice has been done. "He never got the chance to see me run track," he says. "I'm here and able to do something and I have to maximise my potential. He was a musician who wanted to be an architect and he passed away at his first semester at college. He never even got a chance to start his dream.
"He went to Shaw University in North Carolina. Evidently he got into an altercation with a guy on a basketball court and the guy was part of this off-campus fraternity. That same night, the guy's frat brothers ended up coming to his dorm room, which was on the ninth floor, and he ended up out of the window. It was three big guys. He'd just turned 18 and was smaller than what I am now.
"He died a little bit later but the guys shouldn't even have got through security. There was a camera pointing right [at] the window but it wasn't working. Whoever thought that could happen? They were charged [with manslaughter] but there was some law which meant they couldn't prove that they [were responsible for his death]. One got a little bit of time and others got community service, so I don't think justice was served.
"It gave my life perspective. I learned when terrible things like that happen you just have to keep moving forward, because nothing else is going to stop. The more you sit there in your misery, it's not going to help. If I sit here and do nothing, then I'm only hurting myself. So I kept training. That's what I did during the drug stuff. I went back to school. I didn't finish my degree but I'm majoring in business management. I talked to a couple of local schools on how things in life may happen."
When Merritt failed his drugs test, he became a non-athlete. He always thought he would be reinstated but says it was tough to stay focused on a sport that had rejected him. "For two years I didn't get any money. With the help of some friends, I could pay my bills but not much more than that."
And, if his accountant had something to do with looking after his finances, it was his dead brother who provided the underlying motivation to return to athletics. "I think about my brother before every race because he never got the chance to see me run. He saw me play baseball, basketball and football when I was young but never at track. So I'm doing this for the both of us.
"Me and my brother were really close. He was five years older than me, and I was hanging with him and his friends some time. When I was a youngster he would tell all his friends that I was fast and I would race older guys in the street. He would come to all of my sports events and be the big brother, supporting me. He would give me money; he'd say if I hit two home runs, he'd give me 20 dollars, or whatever. He definitely played a big part when I was growing up.
"He was always a hard worker and I can remember him being in the house at high school, writing music for the whole band. He was a guy who had this talent for music. Even before I step on the track, I say a prayer which he's in and it just gives me strength. I know he's watching over me. I kiss my two fingers, I raise them as high as I can and then, after that, it's time to do what I was blessed to do. If he was here he would have loved to see me do it."
If Merritt does not keep his title, if James rediscovers that extra stride to beat him again – he maintains: "I really feel I beat myself in that race" – he might turn to American football as a second sporting career, having flirted with the option during his enforced exile, as a wide receiver. "It's still a possibility," he says. "It was serious in my mind. I was thinking I have to do something and I think I may still try out. I think am I going to regret it if I never tried it."
Americans love their goals and dreams. Merritt's fulfilment of his talent in Beijing four years ago has been tarnished but he is hanging on to it, regardless. And London, he says, will neither prove him guilty nor innocent.
"Gold wouldn't be redemption for me. I continue to train, to work hard, just as I've done ever since I was 18. If I win – when I do win – I won't think about what went on. It will just be a case of all the hard work I've done paying off. I don't feel I've got anything to prove. No pressure. I'll take it round for round. Now I'm here I'm just going to get the job done.
"I feel the drug testing itself was nothing. Something happened, I didn't read a label. To some people, it may be a cloud but, to me, I just made a mistake and I'm moving forward from it. I feel my case was unique."
Drug-taking in sport has long been an art and a science. It is wrong and it is widespread, but those who are good at it often profit. They risk their health and their credibility because they think it is a price worth paying, a delusion that is sadder even than their fall from grace. Merritt's is yet another case of an athlete claiming ignorance as a defence. It is pretty much the default position of anyone careless enough to get caught – and this one had the added piquancy of embarrassment.
"I was laying in bed, my agent told me, 'We got the letter and they're not letting you compete.' At first it was like when the police pull up behind you on the road and your heart just drops … oh, no. My agent thought it was funny … "
True. But how could an athlete be stupid enough to risk universal derision by using a product such as Merritt did in the pursuit of a possibly marginal advantage? Perhaps he is telling the truth, after all.
Vauxhall's Ampera is a new kind of electric car that can also fill up with petrol at the pump. Confused? - Daily Mail
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Have you ever known someone for 20 years only to discover you didn’t really know them at all?
This happened to me the other night at a mate’s birthday party.
I won’t name him for fear of a backlash, but he’s middle-aged, drives a pick-up and has scars all over his hands from manual labour: the type of bloke I thought was happiest with a nail gun in one hand and a mug of builder’s in the other. Not dancing around the room to boy band pop.
The petrol engine chugs along at a steady rate, no matter what speed you're doing... The whole thing is brilliant
Now I’ve nothing against boy bands. I’m a bit of a Take That fan myself. But it’s a question of moderation. A bit of Gary Barlow, a bit of Springsteen, a bit of James Brown: that’s a balanced diet.
At my mate’s party, track after hi-energy male harmony disco track came tumbling out of his iPod: 5ive, One Direction, The Wanted, Bieber. Worse, not only did he know all the words but he had all the dance moves, like a five-year-old would.
Oh my God, I thought as I sat with a beer in my hand, what do I do? I’ve been his mate for more than 20 years and I’m watching him dismantle his butch persona before my eyes. Was he drunk? Was he ill? Was he having a midlife crisis?
I didn’t know. But if it progressed to the show tunes stage, I was going to have to stage an intervention. I don’t want to be at anyone’s 50th birthday and have to watch him act out the choreography of Starlight Express.
Still, each to his own. It would be a dull world if none of us was allowed to change his spots.
You might need kids to help you figure out the dashboard. Most of the knobs have been replaced with a touch-screen
And that brings me to Vauxhall. Close your eyes and think of the first Vauxhall you ever saw. Brown, wasn’t it? Probably a Chevette. Or in my case, a cut-and-shut Nova with brown velvet seats and no stereo: my first ever car.
Now look at this Ampera. You’re telling me the company that made my Nova made this? If so, they must have had the same sort of midlife transformation as my mate. But I’m all for it.
The Ampera is the simplest electric car I’ve ever seen. It fills up at a petrol pump like any normal car, but while normal cars (including hybrids) give you between 20 and 80 miles to the gallon, in the right conditions the Ampera can give you 235.
That’s all you really need to know. But I’ll tell you how they did it, because it’s interesting.
In hybrids the electric motor adds extra efficiency to a standard mechanical drivetrain.
In the Ampera, the wheels aren’t driven by a combustion engine at all.
They’re driven by electricity. The 1.4-litre petrol unit’s only job is to generate that electricity.
Add a full tank and you can go hundreds of miles, easily as far as any normal car
Sounds backwards? Actually it’s how we should have been building cars all along. There are fewer moving parts with electric propulsion, so less energy’s wasted.
And the petrol engine chugs along at a steady rate, no matter what speed you’re doing, so that’s more efficient too. The whole thing is brilliant.
So what’s it like to drive? Well, like an electric car. That means pick-up is instant and very smooth, with the force of a big-engined saloon but none of the noise and no gear-changing pauses. Ever been in an electric go-kart? It’s like that. It doesn’t handle like a go-kart, though.
Lithium batteries are very heavy. The weight’s low down, which is good for stability, but the laws of momentum mean it’s not much fun making it change direction.
The brakes take some getting used to: they’re used to regenerate charge and are over-eager to do it, causing jerks.
But the only real gripe I had was the low front spoiler. Aerodynamics save fuel, but I swear the Ampera’s front is lower than a Lamborghini’s. I dreaded every speed bump on a trip to London.
On the plus side, the aero kit looks good. With those mad boomerang light clusters, you won’t be mistaking the Ampera for anything else.
There’s decent luggage and leg room, but the back is two separate seats, so it’s not ideal for big families.
You might need kids to help you figure out the dashboard, though. Most of the knobs have been replaced with a touch-screen.
And instead of gauges there’s another screen, with context-specific readouts.
There’s more – Nasa has less info than the stuff on here – but I’ll gloss over it, as the great thing about the Ampera is it doesn’t matter.
What does matter is the price. Mine was 34,000 and that’s BMW 3 Series territory. Even though the Ampera is well specced with sat-nav, Bose sound, heated leather seats and parking camera, it can’t quite compete with the Germans on cabin quality and certainly not on handling. So it comes down to running costs.
Six hours plugged into a normal socket (1 on most tariffs) gives you about 35 miles of pure battery power.
Add a full tank and you can go hundreds of miles, easily as far as any normal car.
However, if you only drive to the shops, you might never have to put a single drop of petrol in it. That’s the ‘killer app’ of the Ampera.
Who’s going to buy it? Fleet buyers first, no question.
Apart from the fuel savings and the 100,000-mile warranty, it pays no excise duty, no congestion charge and hardly any company car tax. They’ll give it to the employees who thought they were getting a BMW. I promise you they won’t complain.
I wasn’t sure at first but having driven it for a week, never filling up once, I love this new phase in Vauxhall’s life.
Now I just need to adjust to my mate’s fabulous boy band phase. And I will. It’s the 21st century.
Get used to it.
33,995, vauxhall.co.uk
Power 148hp electric drive unit
Engine 1.4-litre petrol four-cylinder generator
Top speed 100mph (limited)
0-60mph in 8.7 seconds
Fuel consumption 235.4mpg
CO2 emissions 27g/km (excise duty exempt)
Standard features 17in alloys, regenerative brakes with ABS, ESP and traction control, climate control with park heating, cruise control, auto lights and wipers, heated leather seats, leather steering wheel, 7in sat-nav with DAB/FM radio and USB/Aux input, DVD player, Bose 6 Speakers plus subwoofer, voice control, front and rear parking sensors with rearview camera, portable charging cord, pedestrian alert system: warns pedestrians of the approaching vehicle by emitting a ‘chirping’ sound
Optional extras Seven colours, spice red trim, ceramic white trim
What's hot on the road this week
FACE IN THE PACK
Today is the last chance to have your face on Sebastian Vettel’s and Mark Webber’s F1 cars at next month’s Silverstone Grand Prix. Go to facesforcharity.com, upload your face, donate €15 and Red Bull Racing will first match your donation, then add your face to the extraordinary 25,000-face collage being wrapped around Vettel and Webber’s RB8s in the race. The money goes to help find a cure for spinal cord injury and you also stand a chance of winning a VIP ticket to the race.
MERC TO SMIRK ABOUT
What do you look for in an SUV? Seven seats? Air suspension? Intelligent 4WD? Mercedes’ GL 63 AMG has it all, plus 557hp. If that sounds reasonable, you may be a Premier League footballer. You’ll need to be. Although prices are yet to be announced, the GL 63 AMG has new Active Curve System roll-prevention, sports suspension, sports steering and performance brakes as standard; options include 360-degree cameras and Bang & Olufsen sound. It won’t be cheap.
WHOLE LOTTA FIAT
First the Fiat 500 was transformed into the race-worthy Abarth 500. Now it is being further souped up, into this Abarth 695 Edizione Maserati, of which just 499 will be sold at 32,000 each from the end of this year. For that you get 180hp, 17in alloys, a tuned exhaust, flappy paddle gearshift, Brembo brakes, Koni shocks, beige leather interior, Jaeger dials and a special three-layer Maserati paintjob called Pontevecchio Bordeaux. Oh, and a set of fitted Tramontano leather luggage. It almost seems a bargain.
By Simon Lewis
London 2012: IOC begins Olympics tickets investigation - BBC News
The International Olympic Committee has begun an investigation into claims that Olympics officials and agents breached rules on London 2012 ticket sales.
The IOC has held an emergency meeting of its ruling executive board via conference call after claims by the Sunday Times.
The IOC has referred the allegations to its independent ethics commission.
The organisation could also review how Olympic tickets are distributed among member countries.
Combat toutsThe Sunday Times submitted a dossier of evidence detailing claims that Olympic officials and agents had been caught selling thousands of tickets on the black market for up to 10 times their face value, says BBC Sports News correspondent James Pearce.
The newspaper alleges that its two-month investigation found corruption involving people representing 54 separate countries.
More than one million London 2012 tickets were distributed abroad among all the nations taking part in the Games, but the IOC has strict rules to try to combat touts.
National Olympic committees must ensure that their allocation is only sold within their own region.
Undercover reporters from the Sunday Times posed as Middle Eastern ticket touts, and were offered deals from various countries.
Last month a senior Ukrainian Olympic official resigned after being filmed by the BBC offering tickets for cash.
'Strongest sanctions'The IOC said in a statement: "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has moved quickly to deal with allegations that some National Olympic Committees (NOC) and Authorised Ticket Resellers (ATR) have broken rules relating to the sale of Olympic tickets.
"The IOC takes these allegations very seriously and has immediately taken the first steps to investigate.
"Should any irregularities be proven, the organisation will deal with those involved in an appropriate manner.
"The NOCs are autonomous organisations, but if any of the cases are confirmed the IOC will not hesitate to impose the strongest sanctions.
"The IOC has also determined that it will take on board any recommendations coming out of the inquiry to improve the way that tickets are allocated and sold internationally in the future."
London 2012 organising committee Locog said it would support the IOC in its investigation "in any way we can".
"Rules and regulations for selling London 2012 tickets to international fans are clear and unambiguous," it said.
No tickets intended for the British market were involved, it added.
London 2012 Olympics: Australian men's four fire early shot across the bow of their Team GB rivals - Daily Telegraph
As the team heads off to Austria this week for gruelling altitude training, this deficiency out of the blocks is one that will have to be remedied quickly.
Jürgen Grobler, the British men’s head coach, will not be unduly concerned. After all, a trio of serene World Cup victories
for the four, who won convincingly at this year’s instalments in Belgrade and Lucerne, could have risked the onset of complacency.
They could yet reassert their advantage in the final this afternoon, but the one final that truly matters in London already looks too close to call.
“It’s a bit of a kick up the backside,” Gregory acknowledged. “I’m not happy with the race, but it gives us extra motivation.”
James denied that the crew had been seeking to retain their energy yesterday. “I think you go out trying to make a statement even in the semi-final,” said the 28 year-old, who with Reed and Triggs Hodge won gold in the same category in Beijing in 2008. “Australia took their opportunity — we have to make sure that we go back and look at a few things. It’s not panic stations. We did a lot of the basics right.”
Asked if Britain had missed a chance to intimidate Australia in Munich, the last international regatta before the Olympics, James had to restrain himself. He was on his warm-down walk and wary of divulging tactics to the four’s main opposition, who had just jogged past. “We have laid down a lot of markers already,” he insisted. “If we win the final here, then we are in a very good position.”
The British squad are involved in 12 finals today, in what promises to be the most telling gauge yet of their readiness for the Games.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who contest the first ‘A’ final, are the clear favourites in the women’s pair, while Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins should also contribute a third consecutive triumph in the double sculls.
Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase, the fourth of Britain’s leading gold-medal hopes for London, sustained their renaissance in the lightweight men’s double after a slump in form by beating the Italian duo, both former world champions, into third in a formidable semi-final performance.
Waving all the flags! London's Regents Street bedecked in national colours ahead of Olympics after ditching the Jubilee Union Flags - Daily Mail
Flying the flag: (Front row, left to right) Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, (second row) Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, (third row) Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, (fourth row) Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, (fifth row) Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, (sixth row) Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, (seventh row) Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Macau, Madagascar, (eighth row) Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania
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