Run-Down Forums

Conway · Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 7:18 pm Post subject:

Ahhh ... Now getting to the heart of the matter ...
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Published in The Courier Mail (Australia)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Why did sprint sweethearts Tim Montgomery and MarionJones leave a successful
training situation to be coached by Ben Johnson's disgraced coach Charlie
Francis?

This is the question which has absorbed the
athletics world since the two hottest talents on the Olympic stage quit
Trevor Graham's North Carolina coaching group on December 13.

Jones won five medals at the Sydney Olympics,including the sprint double,
and Montgomery is the new world record-holder for the 100 metres.

The question of their defectiont remains unanswered publically because
managers, lawyers and maybe also the sponsors of the world's fastest lovers
have stuck their corporate heads in the sand and hoped the relationship with
Francis would collapse before it became public.

Great idea! In North America it took precisely one day before the Toronto
Sun newspaper made the connection because their reporter Steve Buffery saw
the trio training at York University's indoor track.

But in a world exclusive the Daily Telegraph actually broke the story _ a
day before Jones announced she had left Graham _ and two days before any of
the Toronto papers.

The first photographic proof captured by Reuters newsagency was published
globally on December 18.

A major sponsor of both sprinters, Nike, is great at advertising and
promotion, but urgently needs coaching in media relations and crisis
management.

Nike took a hammering in Edmonton at the 2001 world championships when it
refused to allow Jones to speak out against the evil of doping when she gave
her only pre-meet Canadian press conference attended by athletes from local
schools.

Clearly Jones and Montgomery, and thereby Francis, have been gagged to date
and the athletes' managers Charlie Wells and Llewellyn Starks are in denial,
which is unfortunate because they have now been branded as, let's say,
compromised.

How they will explain themselves when inevitably _and surely imminently _
the athletes and Francis are liberated to tell the truth will be
interesting.

Meanwhile, in the absence of clarification from the athletes, speculation
about why Jones and Montgomery jumped ship could benefit from a good dose of
logic instead of condemnation by the International Association of Athletics
Federations president Lamine Diack, not to mention the hysterics displayed
by the organisers of Europe's lucrative Golden League series.

They are threatening to ban Montgomery and Jones due to their still
unacknowledged affiliation with Francis. Now that is a game of monopoly and
collusion lawyers for Jones, Montgomery and Francis could have a lot of
profitable fun playing.

Canadian Francis stumbled from celebrity to infamy as the coach of Ben
Johnson who won the Seoul Olympic 100m in a world record 9.79sec but was
disqualified after tesing positive for an anabolic steroid in the biggest
scandal in Games history.

Without even speaking to Montgomery or Jones, muchless the reformed Francis,
the directors of the six-meet Golden League (in Oslo, Paris, Rome, Berlin,
Zurich and Brussels) intend to take a joint decision on a ban during the
IAAF world indoor championships in Birmingham, England from March 14-16.

Former record-holder and Sydney Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene entered
the debate when he called Tim Montgomery``stupid'' for switching coaches.

``Do I think Charlie Francis can help him (Montgomery)? No,'' Greene said.

``I think he made a mistake when he left Trevor,''he added. ``Someone
coaches you to a world record and you leave him, you're stupid.''

Is the triple 100m world champion Greene even aware that Francis was a
mentor to his own coach, (John Smith)?

But Greene has come to the heart of the issue in questioning why an athlete
would leave immediately after setting a world record.

A move with such enormous implications could not have been taken lightly. It
could not have been hatched overnight.

You don't set a world record and then just pick up the phone and cold-call
someone who was banned by Athletics Canada from coaching when Montgomery was
only 13-years-old.

How would Montgomery decide Francis was the best coach for him?

Unless they had already worked together.

The fact is they have.

Under Graham's coaching alone in 2000 Montgomery went from running 9.94sec
(in 1997) to a season best of 10.01sec, opening with a 10.50sec shocker.

In late 2000, Francis was called in as a consultant by Graham and Montgomery
to lay out Tim's training plan for 2001.

After his ruinous start (2.01sec for the first 10 metres) at the IAAF world
indoor championships in March 2001, Montgomery had threatened to leave until
Graham agreed to bring in Francis again to design the rest of the 2001
season, from adjusting Montgomery's blockstart mechanics, running and
weight-training program through to selecting the race schedule. The coaching
was conducted in San Francisco (an internet scan revealed).

After Francis' hands-on consultation, Montgomery's start improved
dramatically. Off the blocks he clocked 1.85sec to 10 metres, then went to
Modesto where he clocked 9.96sec shutting down at 50m and jogging in to win
the meet after the insult of being forced to run in the B-division (10.01sec
won the A-race).

The changes propelled Montgomery into a new speedzone when he clocked a huge
personal best 9.84sec in Oslo that season, despite having already lost ``the
feel'' of his new start.

Had Graham not then tampered with Montgomery's start_ or had Francis been
recalled to fix it _ he may well even have won the world title in Edmonton
and run the world record there, instead of losing to an injured and heroic
Greene (9.82sec) in 9.85sec.

So the coaching relationship had been established two years before
Montgomery ran his world record 9.78sec in the IAAF grand prix final on
September 14.

Montgomery must have felt Francis' contribution had been huge for him to
decide _ even with the PR stigma - that he was better off with Francis than
Graham.

That is Graham, the man now credited with enabling Montgomery to set a world
record while his other protege, Jones, could not run the year's fastest
women's 100m.

Jones is nobody's fool. She had some cramped blocksettings and some
restrictive shoulder and hip mechanics which cost her the world 100m crown,
taken by bullet-starting Zhanna Block.

And if it was drugs that these athletes wanted, they would indeed be stupid
to go to Francis. Since his name became synonymous with sportsdoping,
Francis would be the last coach on earth they'd be seen working with.

Today Francis has his own highly successful consulting business and he could
not afford to work with any athletes who he thought were using dope.

Indeed the fact that Francis is working with them is the most credible case
for them all being clean because Francis has always been the world's biggest
sceptic.

So they must be ``clean'' and Francis must be clean.

His jottings over the years have always been aimed at changing things for
the better, pricking authorities into cleaning up sport. He can hardly be
blamed for the drug use which ensued since his departure in 1988.

Authorities consider him anathema perhaps not because he used drugs, but
because he refused to perjure himself and blew apart the whole sham when he
admitted everything under oath at Canada's judicial inquiry chaired by
Charles Dubin in 1989.

If Montgomery and Jones weren't convinced Francis can take them both to
world records just on his coaching ability, they wouldn't have stuck with
him thus far under siege from media, promoters, sponsors, administrators and
dope-testing agencies.

It's time to take the brakes off Montgomery and Jones. Fifteen years after
the Seoul incident, it's also time to forgive a chastened Francis.

It's time to come clean on the most exciting coaching development in the
premier Olympic sport for the benefit of all.

======

From an Austrailian publication ... Now that was pretty good ...
_________________
Conway
Speed Thrills

Dan · Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 7:49 pm Post subject:

Glad to see someone finally looking pass the b.s. explanations and dig a bit deeper, but there's still plenty of questionable reasoning and conclusions in there.

Bob R · Guest

Quote:
Nike took a hammering in Edmonton at the 2001 world championships when it refused to allow Jones to speak out against the evil of doping

Anyone know the scoop there? Sounds very fishy. I never trust it when an article throws alarming "facts" around like that with nothing resembling an explanation... Sounds like grapevine reporting, for lack of a better term.

---

I was at the event referred to here. The top Nike athletes showed up to christen Edmonton's Nike Kids park a day or two before the champs began. Will have to dig out my notes, but if I recall correctly, the focus wasn't on Jones, but rather on a question posed to Paula Radcliffe re: Yegorova. The Nike rep said that in the spirit of the children's park, drug questions would be allowed. Lots of hooting and hollering ensued.

Dan · Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 10:53 pm Post subject:

I'm a bit confused... How does that reflect on Marion and/or Nike, especially in light of the point the article was trying to make?

Dan
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Paul · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 9:54 am Post subject:

I really liked that article, but then I'm an unabashed Francis fan.

Here is my offer for the following regulars: Conway, DG, Micah, Hammer, coachd, Justin, X King, Jafar, RangerG. If you want to download the ebook "Speed Trap" from Francis' website I will send you the ten dollars to do so. You can either email me your address or you can do it through Dan if you are not comfortable with that. I will just bring a handfull of stamped envelopes down to Dan and he can address them. Even if you don't agree with everything in the book, I think you will find it most enjoyable, and an eye opener!!

Paul

edited to add Graeme and Mad Dog Mike (training2run) to this list also.

Dan · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:40 am Post subject:

Wow, that's quite the offer! Thumbs Up

Dan
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Paul · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 11:00 am Post subject:

I may even download it myself, just to give my new printer a workout. One thing about ebooks, if you print them out you can make notes in them, something one wouldn't probably do in a normal book.
Paul

Dan · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 12:09 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I stuck to just using post-it flags on pages of note. I spent too long searching for that literary treasure to mark it up. Smile

Dan
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Conway · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 8:38 pm Post subject:

Wow, guess I'll have ot go out and get the book now ... And I won't even take your money ... I did like the article .. It was the most concise one I have seen to date ... Fills a lot of holes .. Although I had a lot of those filled already ... I am curious to see if there is any kind of responce to it from those involved ....
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Conway
Speed Thrills

Paul · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 9:19 pm Post subject:

Here's a few quotes from Francis concerning 400m training, Marita Koch, John Smith to dispel some of the false info out there.

Paul · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 9:29 pm Post subject:

...and since this is a Marion thread of sorts, Charlie's reference to Marion here is worth reading.

Dan · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 9:36 pm Post subject:

Great quotes, thanks Paul! Are those off of Francis' forum?

Man, those are some scary workouts posted there. They would dominate the all-time top-10 lists for shorter distances if taken as race efforts... Surprised

Dan
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Paul · Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 11:15 pm Post subject:

Those were all off Francis' 400m training forum.

Dan · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 2:55 pm Post subject:

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/5103166.htm

Dan
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Paul · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 4:09 pm Post subject:

All these articles appear to sing the same tune except Conway's from Australia. I am wondering, now, if it was really Montgomery who persuaded Marion to seek advice from Francis.

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