UNHAPPY DAI BLASTS LACK OF ACTION & NASER ‘MADNESS’
ATHLETICS HURDLER’S LOCKDOWN LAMENT
DAI GREENE has voiced his frustration at the lack of competition for British athletes and the slow pace of a return from lockdown.
He has also blasted the “madness” of track and field allowing Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser to become world champ over 400 metres after she already had three missed drugs tests against her name.
Wales’ 2011 world 400m hurdles champ looked on enviously as current No.1 Karsten Warholm headlined the Impossible Games, in Oslo, on Thursday, a behind-closed-doors meet of innovative events to get around social-distancing.
Greene said: “There’s a growing frustration in the athletics community, certainly in the UK, that there has been no innovation.
“I feel they should be looking to schedule comps. Other countries are ahead of us and we need something not only to entertain the fans, but as motivation for training.
“The rules for elite sport opened up three weeks ago and football matches restart in England on Wednesday, yet I can’t even use starting blocks or a set of hurdles at the elite training centre.”
Greene, 34, lives on a farm and has spent lockdown lifting tractor tyres and logs to try to replicate gym work.
He has been irritated by
Naser, who was able to compete in Doha, in October, and was only provisionally suspended after missing a fourth drugs test.
“I don’t understand how you miss three tests,” added Greene. “To be one of the world’s top athletes you have to devote your entire lifestyle to staying ahead of the rest.
“Your routine is sleep, eat, train, repeat. Your life is structured. It shouldn’t be difficult to organise your ‘whereabouts’ around that. The fact Naser missed three tests before the champs and was not provisionally suspended is really bad.”
British hammer thrower Mark Dry is serving a fouryear ban. He missed one test, which is not a punishable offence, but because he lied about his whereabouts the authorities came down hard.
“As an athlete you want consistency – it’s madness,” said Greene.