Page 22 - ARUBA TODAY

A22 SPORTS
Wednesday 2 OctOber 2019
Salazar's ban overshadows action at track championships

By EDDIE PELLS "This gold, overall, was tak-
AP National Writer en care of," said Lyles, who
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Not is expected to team with
a single runner passing Coleman on the U.S. 4x100
through the orbit of famed relay team later this week.
track coach Alberto Sala- "Now we're going to get
zar has been implicated that double gold, maybe
for doping, so when Do- even triple, for Tokyo."
navan Brazier coasted in But Lyles isn't Bolt — and
for a blowout victory Tues- Doha certainly isn't Tokyo ...
day in the 800-meter race or London ... or Beijing ... or
at world championships, anyplace Bolt has ever run.
there was no reason to sus- An already-thin crowd had
pect he would be, either. disappeared almost com-
But for Brazier, the 22-year- pletely by the time Lyles
old who became the first was done with his celebra-
American to win a world tion. Thus closed another
championship at this dis- low-attendance and em-
tance, there was no avoid- barrassing session for orga-
ing the subject of Salazar. nizers, whose insistence on
And for track and field, not scheduling day action
there is no avoiding the in the air-conditioned sta-
ever-present specter of dium made for a long night
doping. On a night when filled with lots of field events
American men won gold in — fans watching lonely jav-
the 200, 800 and pole vault, elin and hammer throwers
many of the questions were do their thing, interrupted
about a 61-year-old coach by an occasional burst of
who was kicked out of the action on the track.
event earlier in the day. In the day's two field finals,
Brazier runs for the Nike Or- Australia's Kelsey-Lee Bar-
egon Project, a 12-person ber won the javelin throw
track team headed by and American Sam Ken-
Salazar. He was ejected dricks defended his pole
after receiving a four-year vault title, then celebrated
suspension for violations by trampolining around on
that involved pushing his the landing mat with his co-
runners to use pills, gels and medalists: Armand Duplan-
infusions in ways designed tis of Sweden (silver) and Pi-
to stretch the rules without Noah Lyles, right, of the United States, wins the men's 200 meters at the World Athletics Champion- otr Lisek of Poland (bronze).
quite breaking them. ships in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. But as the day's develop-
In a way, Salazar's schemes Associated Press ments illustrated, track and
were a success because field can only dream that
none of his athletes ever Anti-Doping Agency for ist who isn't anywhere near the retired Usain Bolt. its worst problems involve
got caught. around six years before the Doha but still felt com- One man who might have the debate over why its
Brazier says the man who ban came down Tuesday. pelled to issue a statement the star power to fill some biggest event is being held
coaches him at NOP isn't "I think it would be pretty distancing himself from his of that void is American in a land where very few
Salazar, but an assistant, ignorant to associate me old coach. sprinter Noah Lyles. people care about the
Pete Julian, who was pres- with that," Brazier said. "I left the Nike Oregon He needed about six steps sport.
ent after the finish, beam- "I think the investigation Project in 2017 but as I've to overtake the compe- Instead, the main topic was
ing like a proud papa. In started when I was in high always said, I have no tol- tition at the start of the doping — on this day, in
fact, Brazier said he barely school, and I had nothing erance for anyone who homestretch of the men's the form of Salazar, a leg-
knows Salazar. to do with it." breaks the rules or crosses a 200, then beat Canada's end who made more news
It didn't mean the new Brazier joins distance run- line," Farah said. Andre De Grasse going by being barred from the
champion, whose time of ner Sifan Hassan as the sec- Exculpatory doping state- away, in 19.83 seconds. stadium than anyone did
1 minute, 42.34 seconds ond athlete from the NOP ments from non-competing Lyles, who died his hair silver while running inside of it.
set an American record, to win a gold medal at athletes probably aren't for this race, took a leisure- Not Brazier's problem, he
wouldn't face questions these championships. Over what this sport had in mind ly victory lap, stopping a insisted.
about his affiliation with the years, Salazar's most when it looked for new couple times to kneel and The theme he harped on
the team Salazar runs — a decorated champion was ways to make headlines in kiss the track as photogra- through all the questioning:
team that had been under Britain's Mo Farah, the four- this new era now void of phers chased him around He's coached by Julian,
investigation by the U.S. time Olympic gold medal- the sport's only superstar, the oval. not Salazar.
Lyles and 100-meter cham- "It's disappointing," Brazier
pion Christian Coleman, said, "that the most cover-
another American caught age we get in track and
in a doping saga, are field is for bad things like
headed for what could that."
be a fun showdown at the He was hardly the first win-
Tokyo Olympics next year, ner at a track meet to share
when both are expected that sentiment — and he
to go for the 100-200 dou- almost certainly won't be
ble. the last.q