News
German Road Races association passed several trail-blazing resolutions
EPO Tests and promoting young talents
2001-12-05
At their annual meeting this year, held in Bolzano on Nov. 10-11, the German Road Races association passed several trail-blazing resolutions that will strongly influence the face of road racing in Germany in the years to come. They included two decisions relating specifically to competition conditions. Firstly, all the major members of GRR, specifically the large city marathon organizers, have undertaken to in future conduct tests for EPO and thus to guarantee fair conditions for all on the road-race circuit. The real,- BERLIN-MARATHON and THE Hansaplast Marathon Hamburg have already pursued a policy of implementing the expensive blood tests, and the other GRR members agreed that for larger city marathons, national trials and for course record attempts, subject to testing be approved by the IAAF, they would conduct urine tests for EPO. Second, the GRR members will be approaching German AA (DLV) long-distance coach Wolfgang Heinig with the intention of developing a joint concept to promote up-and-coming German talent over the next three years. To this end, GRR envisages setting a matching plan in place, whereby it undertakes to financially support training camps for talent young long-distance runners and then nurture this young vanguard onto the international scene by providing them with start opportunities at GRR marathons and races. To this end, they expect the DLV to guarantee that such runners will duly configure their long-term training schedules and target these races. Once again, the Berlin, Hamburg and the other big marathon organizers will be leading the way.
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