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Whitlock Makes Mark
Sun 16 Jan, 1:09 PM


British record-holder Janine Whitlock achieved the European Indoors pole vault qualifying mark at Loughborough on Saturday.

Whitlock, who completed a two-year ban last September for doping offence, cleared a height of 4.25 metres in the meeting held at UK Athletics High Performance Centre.

It was her third competition of the indoor season, having cleared 4.00m on her comeback to the sport last summer after the ban for using anabolic steroid dianabol.

The pole vaulter tested positive at the 2002 Commonwealth Games trials in Manchester but consistently claimed her nutritional sports drink had been spiked.

Zoe Brown, the Northern Ireland record-holder, finished second to Whitlock with a vault of 4.05m.

The meeting also saw two other athletes beat their event standard for the championships taking place in Madrid at the start of March.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/athletics/s ... 11,00.html

Whitlock win fails to wipe away stain on her name

Duncan Mackay in Sheffield
Monday February 14, 2005
The Guardian

The doping control officer on the shoulder of Janine Whitlock yesterday was an unwelcome reminder that the stain on her name will never be wiped away.

The pole vaulter has become a regular target for UK Sport's anti-doping unit since returning recently from a two-year suspension after testing positive for anabolic steroids.

A burning sense of injustice is helping to fuel Whitlock's comeback and undoubtedly there was extra satisfaction in claiming the 12th national title of her career.

"It's been difficult to get back but I've stuck at it for the last two years," said the Trafford athlete. "I don't think I should have had to serve a ban."

Whitlock insists she does not know how traces of the steroid Dianabol were discovered in her urine sample taken after she had set her 37th UK record at the Commonwealth Games trials in Manchester in June 2002.

She has claimed that she either ingested the drug in a supplement ordered over the internet or that person or persons unknown spiked her drink.

But Whitlock did not challenge the ban legally, only because she said she could not afford to go to court and did not want to end up in the same predicament as Diane Modahl.

The 800-metres runner eventually had her positive test for testosterone quashed but was forced into bankruptcy after suing the British Athletic Federation for compensation.

Since the ban Whitlock has split with her then coach Brian Hooper and is working with Egryn Jones, a former international pole vaulter himself, and a teacher in Redhill.

Her clearance of 4.25m yesterday will also earn her a first appearance in a British vest since the ban - the winner was guaranteed a place in the European Indoor Championships in Madrid next month.

But the ramifications of Whitlock's positive test will go a long way beyond having to grow accustomed to being tested more than other athletes. She has already lost one appeal to the British Olympic Association, which refuses to pick athletes for the games who have drug convictions. A similar policy by the English Commonwealth Games Council may also prevent her from competing at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next year.

"It's a difficult situation; it's very tough on her," said Jones. "If a person commits a crime they go to jail but once they have served their sentence they are given a second chance and I think it should be the same with athletics. They should show some compassion."

The crowd here at the English Institute of Sport certainly gave Whitlock a warm welcome and she said there was no animosity towards her from any competitors. "I can't worry about what people think of me," said Whitlock. "I've got to get on with my life. But everyone today was really supportive."

Whitlock will be hoping it is a similar story when she returns to the international arena at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on Friday.

There she will face the Russian phenomenon Yelena Isinbayeva. The 22-year-old started 2005 on Saturday as she ended last year when she set the 10th world record of her career with a clearance of 4.87m in Donetsk, Ukraine.

By then Whitlock is hoping to have recovered fully from the food poisoning that kept her in hospital for two days last week. "I should be right up for Birmingham," she said. "A new personal best is definitely on the cards."

http://www.woking.co.uk/sport/article/a ... 14465.html

WHITLOCK ON MARCH TO EURO GLORY
23/06/2005
By CLIVE YOULTON

JANINE Whitlock is making herself noticed by continuing to break records in her build up to possible World Championship glory in August.

The seven times British pole vault champion, who lives in St John’s, has broken the British record twice in the past four weeks, jumping 4.45m in Loughborough before outdoing that by another centimetre at the National Games in Bedford a week ago.
It is tremendous form from Whitlock, 31, who was banned from the sport for two years in 2002 for testing positive for the illegal substance Dianabol â€â€

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sport ... waits.html

Athletics: Whitlock waits
Trevor Baxter
Janine Whitlock faces an agonising wait to discover whether she can compete at her first Commonwealth Games for eight years.

The Trafford star underlined her superiority as Britain's No 1 pole vaulter by recapturing the AAA title after a four-year absence.

By her own standards, Whitlock's winning clearance of 4.20m was disappointing. But she had already done a world-qualifying standard and will be on the plane to Helsinki. However, Commonwealth selection isn't as straightforward.


She has met all the criteria, but has had to appeal to the Commonwealth Games Federation of England to change their selection policy.

As with the British Olympic Association, they are refusing to pick any athlete who has failed a drugs test.

Whitlock served a two-year ban from 2002 to 2004 and can represent Britain at many events where the squads are chosen by the sport governing UK Athletics.

"I've put in the necessary appeal and I'm now waiting to hear back. If I think it's not going to go in my favour at a starting point, then I won't be too disappointed like I've been in the past," said Janine.

On her winning vault, Whitlock added: "People expect me to break records all the time and it's not possible. British records are not easy to do. However, it wasn't easy out there. I had to wait for nearly two hours in that heat to take my first vault and that drained some of my energy."

http://www.sundayherald.com/51015

Pole position



Janine Whitlock is aiming high after fighting back from the shame of a doping ban, finds Natasha Woods


JANINE Whitlock will talk about her despair and depression if asked. She’ll tell you about long days when she could not bring herself to even eat, of her tarnished reputation and the pain it has caused her parents. Even now, three years after her nightmare began, emotions can still overwhelm her.
But it is not her preferred topic of conversation. Not when the World Championships are imminent and she is back where she feels she belongs, fuelled by the same sense of injustice which kept her from cracking when a doping offence cost her two years of her career.

What she would rather discuss is the future – her future and that of her event. It is just more than a week ago since she stood beside the pole vault runway at Crystal Palace and watched Yelena Isinbayeva soar over five metres. It was far more than a 17th world record for the remarkable Russian. It was a seminal sporting moment which brought the great Sergei Bubka to his feet in the stands. The legendary vaulter had always said he would only take the women’s event seriously once a competitor had reached that mark.

And there it was, a breakthrough delivered by a 23-year-old Olympic champion who has already stated her ambition to go higher in Helsinki. Isinbayeva’s feat – which earned her close to £30,000 – provided a landmark akin to the first sub-10 second 100 metres or the four minute mile.

Suddenly “chicks on sticksâ€Â

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/s ... prove.html

Athletics: Whitlock has point to prove
athletics, whitlock,
DENIED a chance to compete at the Commonwealth Games in March, Janine Whitlock has points to prove at this weekend's UK Athletics Indoor City Challenge at Sportcity.

But Trafford AC's national pole vault record holder will compete on Sunday over 200 metres in unfamiliar colours.

After her Melbourne disappointment Whitlock's goals this year are the World Indoor Championships in Moscow and the European Championships in Gothenburg.

Now based in Surrey, she will run in the grey of London South, while Sale Harriers Manchester star Sara McGreavy runs for Birmingham in the 60 metres hurdles. The match features teams representing Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London North and London South.