Athletes in General

If any competitor and sport has toxic debt right now its Dwain Chambers and the Bank of Athletics, the disgraced sprinters latest power-play, a revealing and threatening autobiography, likely to further damage the sport I used to love and compete in at a good level. We have heard all the stories about rampant drug abuse in athletics over the years and yet no one has ever done a 'tell all' book. Well that could be about to change as Chambers book release date nears. Victor Conte, the ex head of the notorious 'Balco' labs, claimed that Dwaine's agent ,10.15, 100M man and ex Olympian sprinter John Regis, wired ten grand to Dwaine out in America at the height of his ...  Read the complete review

I think it's quite harsh to label anyone who fails to win Olympic Gold as a "loser". I?m referring to the numerous people who are determined to enter Paula Radcliffe into this category. The obvious factor regarding the conditions of the race has been stressed, but I don?t think enough. Even Paula herself knew before the race started that they weren?t going to favour her at all. It's not her fault that the media in Britain had her down as Team GB's "certainty" for a gold medal. The pressure on her to perform, placed on her both by herself and by the weight of expectation in Britain, was probably bigger than on any other British ...  Read the complete review

Finally! After so many years of heartache - for us as athletics fans as well as the woman herself - Paula Radcliffe has succeeded in winning a major track gold. And let's have no carping about the standard of the Commonwealth Games - Radcliffe's performance on Sunday night was at the very top end of world class, as she powered away from the Kenyan Edith Masai (who is not exactly a nobody) - and if only the first two laps had been run at the pace she set later on, the world record would surely have been hers. As it was, it was the fifth fastest 5000m in history, and barely outside the World and European records set by the Chinese Jiang Bo and by Olga Yegorova, ...  Read the complete review

The words 'plucky', 'brave' and 'courageous' have often been used to describe Paula Radcliffe, Britain's top long distance athlete. However, from yesterday, they can now add the word 'winner' to that list. Yesterday evening, I was among 36,000 people cheering Paula on as she became the Commonwealth 5000m champion, destroying a top-quality field and almost breaking the world record in the process. After years of heartache on the track, with more near-misses than almost any other world-class athlete, she won a major track title at her 9th attempt. Radcliffe burst onto the scene in 1992, when she became World Junior ...  Read the complete review

Despite the disgraceful performance of the Great Britain athletics team in Edminton this year, one athlete has consistently produced medals and records which we can all be proud of. Jonathon Edwards shot to fame with his outstanding world record of 18.29 metres in Gothenburg 1995 and, since then, he has won the Olympic Games and European Championships gold medals. He is also an excellent role model for aspiring young athletes in this country - his attitude is spot on! Edwards, the North-Easts first ever olympic champion, had been triple jumping for a fair while before he became a household name. He was competing internationally as far back as the 1988 ...  Read the complete review