Kenyans test positive

Kenyans Diana Kopyokei, 28, 2021 Boston Marathon women’s champion and Betty Wilson Lempus will be banned from running competitions after testing positive for doping at the race and  allegedly obstructing an investigation. According to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), both runners submitted samples with traces of triamcinolone acetonide. It is a gluco corticoid prohibited at races, when an athlete does not have permission to use it as medication.  Kipyokei will lose the title once convicted. The AIU further said 10 Kenyans have tested positive for triamcinolone since the start of 2021, with only two cases in athletics from the entire rest of the world in the same period. Kipyokei will be stripped of her Boston win and the $ 150,000 prize money. She clocked 2:24:25, 24 seconds ahead of Edna Kiplagat, two-time world champion who is now 43 years old. On the other hand, Lempus tested positive for the same substance after a victory in Paris last autumn, (2021). the drug is sometimes use for therapeutic purposes but are prohibited in competition as they may enhance performance.

Fastest bipedal robot

Don’t look noon, but there’s a bipedal robot invented at the Oregon State University College of Engineering, who could shame Usian Bolt’s 100 meterworld record. Cassie, the robot, has established a Guinness World record for the fastest100 meters by a bipedal robot when it clocked  24.3 seconds at the OSU’s Whyte Track and Field Center.  Cassie also established a record in the 5 kilometer distance in 2021 when it clocked 53 minutes. Cassie was developed under the direction of Oregon State Robotics professor Jonathan  Hurst, with a 16-month $1 million grant from the Defense AdvanceResearch Projects Agency. Cassie has knees that bend like in ostrich’s and operates with no cameras or external sensors, essentially as if blind.

Boston blocked 11 shots

You can’t do that  to a team like the Miami Heat, but the Boston Celtics was in a swatting mood last Friday as they blocked 11 shots of the Heat. The Defensive Team of the Year were led by Derrick White who accounted for three.  White blocked Tyler Herro’s step back-jumper in the first quarter and stripped Jimmy Butler at one point.  Jaylen Brown smother Kyle Lowry’s shot as he drove to the paint and also blocked Herro’s attempt, while Defensive Player of the Year, Marcus Smart, also helped hold Lowry in check. Of course, the Celtics did all the blocking in the absence of Robert Williams the team’s top swatter who in sick bay. Newcomer Noah Vonleh, 6’10”, likewise contributed greatly to the Celtics domination of the boards. In that game against the Heat, Jayson Tatum fired 29 points while Brown tallied 28.  The duo scored a combined 75 points against the Philadelphia Sixers. With the addition of Malcolm Brogdon and Blake Griffin, the Celtics are favorites to win this season’s crown after missing the championship by just two games against the Golden State Warriors last year. As I was finishing this column, reports came that the Celtics won against the Orlando Magic with Tatum exploding for 40 points.