TrackCoach wrote:
what say you wrote:Don't know a whole lot about world junior records but saw the extreme excitement when it came to Brazier's 1:43.5
Is 1:41.73 really the world record? This seems insane. This is light years faster than Brazier. What's the deal? Is this record the product of doping?
It is almost universally understood that every youth and junior record over 400m is false and is the result of age fraud. Amos' 1:41.73 was supposedly run at age 18, that is still his PR 4 years latter. Nearly all of the Africans on the junior 800m top-10 list never improved much beyond their junior marks, which suggest they were probably in their mid-20s when competing as juniors.
First, I agree that he was probably not 18 when he set that time. There is a long history of 'age cheating' in African countries due to lack of birth certificates. This has had a profoundly negative effect on the quality of youngsters coming through to senior ranks. Many have the philosophy that they simply can't compete with these supposed teens, and decide there is no point carrying on. I truly believe that this is part of the reason for a decline in elite Europeans and American in middle distance and distance events. Although it's good to see some signs of a resurgence from the Americans of late.
Secondly, I always had my doubts about Amos from the very start. He practically came from no where, then disappeared the season after almost without a trace. He went from 1:47 to 1:41 in 1 season! And he hasn't run within half a second since.
Moreover, he appears to have missed several out of season drug tests in the past, even when he was informed 2 weeks prior by the testers that they were coming to pay him a visit! I kid you not.
http://www.weekendpost.co.bw/wp-news-details.php?nid=699