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Chris2
Trad climber
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Jul 14, 2011 - 05:55pm PT
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Thanks; my math may be off but I think that converts to 10:45 am Pacific?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 16, 2011 - 04:07pm PT
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Man, dontchya hate it when you get the bogus musk deer glands instead of the good ones?
5 North Koreans positive at women’s World Cup
By RAF CASERT, AP Sports Writer
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)—North Korea is blaming football’s worst doping scandal in almost two decades on using steroid-laced medicine from musk deer glands to treat injuries from a lightning strike at a training camp for the Women’s World Cup.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter said Saturday that after two North Korean players were caught during the tournament, three more positive results came in when the world football federation took the unprecedented decision to test all members of the squad.
“This is a shock,” Blatter told a news conference. “We are confronted with a very, very bad case of doping and it hurts.”
The last doping case at a major event came at the men’s 1994 World Cup in the United States, when Diego Maradona was kicked out after testing positive for using a cocktail of banned substances.
Colombia reserve goalkeeper Yineth Varon has meanwhile been suspended for failing an out-of-competition test just before the Women’s World Cup in the wake of undergoing hormonal treatment. It was the first doping case in the history of the women’s Cup.
All attention, however, turned to the North Korean cases on Saturday.
“The North Korean officials said they didn’t use it to improve performance. They said they had a serious lightning accident with several players injured and they gave it as therapy,” Michel D’Hooghe, head of FIFA’s medical committee, said in an interview.
A North Korean delegation told Blatter and D’Hooghe early Saturday that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on musk deer glands. After North Korea lost its opener against the United States, team officials first claimed that lightning had struck several players on June 8 during a training camp at home.
The case will be taken up by FIFA’s disciplinary committee. Players face a ban of up to two years for such infractions.
Defenders Song Jong Sun and Jong Pok Sim tested positive for steroids after North Korea’s first two group games and were suspended for the last match. The team was eliminated in the first round after another loss to Sweden and a draw with Colombia.
The names of the three other players would be made public only at a later stage, FIFA said.
The gland in question comes from musk deer living in a large swath of Asia from Siberia to North Korea. The hairy four-centimeter gland is usually cut open to extract a liquid that is then used for medical purposes.
“There is a whole industry linked to that to produce these medical products,” D’Hooghe said.
Doping officials have been concerned about such naturally occurring substances in recent years. During the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, FIFA’s concerns focused on African plants that could give players an unfair advantage by providing energy boosts or helping to heal muscle injuries.
FIFA investigators who discovered evidence of doping in the North Korean samples found themselves in uncharted territory. Experts from the World Anti-Doping Agency were called in to confirm the breach of doping rules.
“It was very complex,” FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said, especially since the type of steroids had “never before appeared and never before been determined.”
All experts concluded there were “positive findings of an unknown origin,” Dvorak said.
After the first two cases were discovered, doping officials made an unannounced visit to North Korea’s last match to impose the provisional suspension on the two players. They then said all the players would be tested.
“They were surprised but they cooperated,” Dvorak said.
The testing took until 3:00 am. A few hours later, the whole delegation was on its way back to North Korea. But the team’s medical officer had provided the breakthrough, following extensive testing that took until late Friday.
“(The officer) gave us a sample that she described as classical or traditional medicine that is often used in North Korea,” Dvorak said. “We can really say with far-reaching confidence that these steroids were the result of this so-called Chinese traditional medicine.”
The musk gland extract “it is not part of the world of doping,” Dvorak said. “It is really the first case in which this has been discovered.”
The North Koreans refused to elaborate on the circumstances of the lightning incident. North Korea coach Kim Kwang Min said that “more than five” players were sent to hospital, with goalkeeper Hong Myong Hui, four defenders and some of the midfielders the players most affected.
Dvorak also said the information was still sketchy.
“We saw some pictures with ambulances and saw that some players were taken from the pitch, but that is all we have,” he said.
FIFA also received information from North Korea about the initial hospital treatment of the players and “this very first report did not include the traditional Chinese medicine,” Dvorak said.
There had been fears that North Korea could have been the first country in football to be caught providing systematic doping.
“It is not systemic because not all of the players took it. We would have found it with the others, too,” said D’Hooghe.
The tournament ends on Sunday with the final between the United States and Japan.
FIFA annually spends some $30 million on 35,000 doping tests. Despite the six cases at the women’s World Cup, “doping really is a marginal, fringe phenomenon in football,” said Blatter.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Jul 16, 2011 - 09:49pm PT
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Looking forward to Japan v US!
I can't believe that we beat Brazil !! What a game that was, even with the blown calls. In sports, part of the game is shaking off bad calls, and look at what the US team did--amazing. Somebody's fix didn't work, I wonder who's gonna pay? Lol...
Oh, where to go for the game... Should be a good one.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 16, 2011 - 10:54pm PT
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11:30 Pacific Coast time.
ESPN and CBUT. ESPN's coverage will start at 11, but not the game. That's probably 11:45. Sunday
Golden Girls BS still bugs me.
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Jul 17, 2011 - 02:37pm PT
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Hoping this is as thrilling a game as the past few.
I'd like to see 2 teams going head to head with the outcome being pure entertainment along with the hopes and dreams of nations lifting each.
Cheers
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Jul 17, 2011 - 03:51pm PT
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Plenty of chances, plenty of missed opportunities.
Both teams look pretty confident.
Both teams have made there chances.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jul 17, 2011 - 03:52pm PT
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Presumably the North Koreans' deer musk glands were laced with steroids in the same way that traditional Asian virility "medicines" - often made or at least allegedly made from endangered species - are laced with Viagra.
Not that there seems any real need for treatments to enhance male virility in Asia, given population growth there, or that there's any scientific proof that such traditional 'treatments' are effective.
Anyway, it's probably off to the gulag or worse for the team doctor, if not the coaches and players.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 17, 2011 - 03:57pm PT
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Love the prevent defence but enough target practice already!!!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2011 - 04:09pm PT
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I'm glad Pia finally listened to me and started Rapinoe. She has disappointed
with too many bad passes.
Finishing has always been the bane of American teams of both sexes. I hope
this doesn't prove to be another game like that but there have been so many
'almosts' in this game, including the one to start the second half, that it
starts to mess with your head. Luckily, there's no quit in these women.
Good marks to the ref so far and even her linesmen.
Ooops, I spoke too soon. Japan just got screwed by a howler of an offside.
The Japan striker would have been in alone with all day to do something.
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Jul 17, 2011 - 04:27pm PT
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Goal!!!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2011 - 04:28pm PT
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Clinical finish! And who sprung her with the 50 yd pass? Yeah, Rapinoe - Redding's finest!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 17, 2011 - 05:12pm PT
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!$$$$$$$
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2011 - 05:12pm PT
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Abby 'Money' Wambach - nuff said.
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Jul 17, 2011 - 05:13pm PT
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Wambach - Player of the World Cup!!!
Again, pulls the header!!!
Cheers
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reddirt
climber
PNW
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Jul 17, 2011 - 05:16pm PT
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boo hiss
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 17, 2011 - 05:24pm PT
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO??????
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Jul 17, 2011 - 05:41pm PT
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What tenacity!!!
Brilliant come back!!
US upset by the underdog Japan.
Awesome game.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 17, 2011 - 05:41pm PT
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EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYOW+-+-+-+-
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