Category Archives: Athletics

West Ham beat Spurs in race for Olympic Stadium

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Olympic Stadium, StratfordWest Ham, not Tottenham, will be handed the keys to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford after the Olympics in 2012. The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) went with West Ham United over Spurs purely on the basis that they have no plans to demolish the £537m stadium and rip out the running track in the process, unlike their bidding rivals.

Which is fair enough – a promise was made to the International Olympics Committee that awarding the Olympics to London would leave a lasting athletics legacy, the heart of which would be the stadium. West Ham made all the right noises along those lines, while Spurs said they’d knock it down, build a football stadium on the site and redevelop the Crystal Palace athletics venue instead.

Actually, that’s NOT what Spurs said, but the media said it was, so that’s good enough. They would actually have retained about £420m of the stadium. Nevertheless, they WOULD have removed the running track and any possibility of athletics events taking place there.

Small wonder the ‘Appy ‘Ammers won the bid, really.

It is rather amusing then that it’ll be the Tottenham fans celebrating while the West Ham fans cry into their jellied eels. I haven’t heard one supporter of either club in favour of moving to the Olympic Stadium, citing many reasons for wanting to stay put. The main one though was that damned running track. It means you’re not close enough to the action, it ruins the atmosphere (incidentally, have you been to a Premier League game lately? There’s very little atmosphere left anywhere if we’re honest with ourselves), it separates you from your heroes, blah, blah, blah. All true, but not exactly forward thinking.

Spurs would have built this:

Spurs Olympic Stadium

No, I have no idea what that red twirly thing is meant to be either

The larger capacity and other amenities that went with it would have helped them increase revenue and push on in their bid to become a real Premier League title contender. West Ham had the same idea, though there are a few cynics out there (yes, me) that question their ability to fill the Olympic Stadium on a weekly basis.

A recent poll in London suggested that 72% of people in the capital supported West Ham’s bid, while only 13% backed Spurs. Can’t help thinking the 72% were Spurs fans and the 13% Hammers fans!

Anyway, point is that the business heads at the two clubs (Brady and Levy) saw an opportunity and went for it, not giving one thought to the supporters. Silly move. West Ham will live to regret this “win”, I believe.

The world of British athletics can rejoice, though they are now going to have to prove that they can generate interest and income in big enough numbers to justify this decision by the OPLC. Again, I have my doubts.

I actually thought Tottenham’s bid was the better one for all concerned (fans aside). Restoring Crystal Palace to its former glory would have been nice and the chance for Spurs to kick on and challenge Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal would have been interesting.

Ah well. West Ham will get the keys after the closing ceremony in 2012 and we’ll find out shortly after if they have bitten off more than they can chew.

Any supporters of either club out there care to comment on your win / loss of the stadium? Good thing, bad thing? Why? Let me know in the comments.

GB doing ‘ok’ at European Championships

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Andy TurnerWith the 2012 Olympics in London looming large on the athletics calendar, focus is more and more on how Great Britain will perform. The host nation always looks to impress and Team GB will be no different as the world turns its collective gaze on our nation’s capital. That’s why the European Championships, currently being held in Barcelona, are so important.

In fairness, Team GB is doing quite well. Currently ranked third in the medals table with 11, comprising of three gold, four silver and four bronze, behind France (10 medals, 4 gold) and, predictably, Russia (19 medals, 8 gold).

A closer look at who won what in what event, however, and you get into the real story in British athletics. First of all, the men have won all but two of our medals – a bronze going to Jenny Meadows in the 800m and another to Perri Shakes-Drayton in the 400m hurdles – mainly in sprinting with a couple of medals coming in the long distance races. There has also been a bronze in the high jump for Martyn Bernard and a gold in the long jump for Phillips Idowu.

This raises the question of funding, always a bone of contention within British athletics. The money goes where success is likely, rather than where it is perhaps most needed. Some say this is sensible, some say it is counter-productive. I tend to lean towards the latter – ideally you’d invest in the areas where progress is required but this is not an ideal world and athletics is not awash with money.

In the short term – and with London 2012 very much in that category – it makes sense to back those with a chance of winning gold medals at the Olympics. At the moment that’s the runners and the men. It is a harsh but true reality. In the long term, however, it’s a potentially disastrous strategy.

The sport simply needs more money but it’s not going to get it, especially in these difficult economic times. Britain’s strength has always been on the track and it will remain that way while we chase immediate success. With little funding for field events there will be little progress and less and less athletes prepared to strive for success there, knowing full well they won’t receive backing.

What’s the harm in specialising, you could ask. It’s a fair question. The Russians have long focused on gymnastics and the like, foregoing any chance of medals on the track and they have proven to be the best in the world for decades, winning medal after medal. The Australians focus on swimming to the same success.

We battle it out with the Americans on the track and do so well. Nothing is going to change any time soon, so we may as well enjoy it and forget about the other events. In Barcelona, there is plenty of success to celebrate. Let’s just do that and stop worrying about trying to dominate in every area. It cannot be done.

London 2012 Olympic mascots revealed…to be sh*t!

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Remember when the London 2012 Olympics logo was unveiled and the pasting it got? Well, it seems whoever is in charge of such things has spent the last few months trying hard to outdo themselves – and they’ve succeeded. But first, a reminder of that God awful logo.

London 2012 Logo Spoof

No, hang on, that can’t be right. Let’s try again.

London 2012 Logo

That’s more like it. Notice the difference? No, neither did we for a bit…

Yesterday on The One Show the mascots for the Olympics and Paralympics were revealed for the first time. We have to say, we were blown away. We didn’t think it was possible but whoever it is that is clearly left to their own devices, high on some kind of drug, to design this stuff has gone one better – or worse – than the logo.

Meet Wenlock and Mandeville.

London 2012 Mascots - Wenlock and Mandeville

In case you couldn’t tell, Wenlock (the Olympics mascot) is on the right and Mandeville (the Paralmpics mascot) is on the left. You can tell by the letter handily stamped into their, erm, heads?!

Now we don’t know if you know this, but the Olympics has a history of awful mascots. Take the Pokémon style cuties from the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a prime example. But this is England, baby, and we won’t be outdone by anyone.

Forget furry little creatures with happy smiley faces, we give you shiny blobs of Cyclopean mucus, guaranteed to give any child under 10 nightmares throughout the summer of 2012. (They’re actually meant to be left over bits of metal from the building of the stadium, crafted into shape by a retiring builder called George and brought to life by an inexplicable rainbow at night!).

Not only that, we’re going to give them their very own blogs, their very own Twitter feeds (@iamwenlock and @iammandeville), Facebook pages (Wenlock and Mandeville) and their very own animated cartoon! You know, just in case the very sight of them isn’t enough to make you throw up.

It’s a very prestigious honour, hosting the Olympic games. As a city London should be proud it was chosen ahead of other very worthy contenders. We’ve no doubt they’ll go all out to put on the best Games they can. It’s just a shame they’ll be hampered by a couple of little snots from some marketing department…and whoever created them. One wonders what the athletes think about it all.

There’s a sickly sweet video you can watch to see how Wenlock and Mandeville came to exist. Disturbingly, it ends with the words “to be continued”. Oh God, really?!

We’ll be quite happy if we never see Wenlock and Mandeville again. In fact, we might have to skip the country come 2012…

Corruption in Sport: A Growing Problem

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Pick a sport. Any sport. We bet that in the last 10 years there has been at least one story regarding some kind of corruption or scandal relating to it.

Corruption in Sport

Where there's money there's corruption

It’s a growing trend. The more money there is in a sport, the shadier the characters attracted to it, looking to make a killing off the back of the participants. The really sad thing is, some of those participants seem only to keen to jump on the bandwagon and make a killing for themselves.

Or, if not being tempted by dodgy syndicates, some are taking it upon themselves to drug themselves up in the pursuit of personal glory…and personal wealth. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, sport would appear to be in serious trouble right now.

The most recent corruption case hit snooker, with world number one John Higgins alleged to have accepted money to lose certain frames in future events. Caught on camera by a News of the World sting, it does seem as though Higgins, recently knocked out of the World Championships at the Crucible by Steve Davis, is guilty as charged.

He, of course, has denied it and there will be an investigation, with snooker supremo Barry Hearn adamant that penalties and punishment will be swift and firm. If only other sports took such a strong and direct view.

Football, awash with money, has attracted many allegations, not least in Italy but in other countries as well. Betting scandals are the most common, of course, but the various governing bodies prefer to talk big about sorting it out and then sweep it under what must be a very big carpet.

In the UK it is usually in the transfer market where scandals arise. Who can forget the George Graham bung affair all those years ago? With agents, managers and directors involved, there are payments shooting left, right and centre. Harry Redknapp, famed wheeler and dealer as well as top manager, remains, as far as we know, under suspicion for his transfer dealings while with Portsmouth. He, as do most, maintains his innocence.

It’s a different story in China. Just last year 16 people were arrested for match fixing and bribery. Once caught, they didn’t attempt to hide the fact – they simply claimed that as everyone was doing it they had to, just to be competitive. Not the strongest of arguments, eh.

Corruption takes many forms. Over in Australia rugby side Melbourne Storm are at the centre of a huge scandal for making secret payments to their players to get them to stay with the club. Storm are owned by Murdoch’s News Limited and he himself has just been hit with a near A£500,000 fine for breaking the strict salary cap rules.

In cricket we’ve always had the ball tampering allegations, but the sport has always suffered from allegations of corruption which culminated in Lord Condon’s investigation following the Hanse Cronje affair (he admitted taking bribes to give information and fix matches on behalf of bookmakers). His report was damning, but little was done.

Even now, corruption, it seems, is rife. The Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi has been suspended pending an investigation into broadcasting and franchise corruption.

Performance enhancing drugs

Drug cheats

Then you have the less complicated but no less damaging scandals involving drug taking. Athletics and cycling have suffered most over the last decade or so. Every Olympics, Commonwealth Games and World Championships sees an athlete punished for drug taking. And the drugs scandal that rocked cycling was huge.

As we said earlier, the pursuit for personal glory and wealth – and the belief that you must take drugs to keep up with everyone else who is – is what drives these sportsmen and women to break the rules. But it leaves the integrity of sport in tatters.

So what can be done? The Government in the UK has an anti-corruption body. But what powers they actually have is unclear. Interviewed on radio 5Live this very morning regarding the John Higgins allegations, they urged any sports person approached about match fixing or similar to contact them immediately – but what are they going to do? And will the ‘whistle blower’ also be punished – in which case where is the incentive to come forward?

It’s not an easy issue. Where there is money there will be crime and corruption. Sport makes money. It takes strong, decisive, swift and brutal action to keep it under control, let alone stamp it out. We’re not sure there is yet the desire for that happen. Too much money to be made.

In the meantime, us spectators and supporters just have to hope that our chosen sport is as free from scandal as possible and that the events we are watching and emotionally involved in are fair contests in which the best man – or team – wins. It’s a shame this is being ever more cast into doubt.

What’s your take on the direction of sport and the amount of corruption therein? Which scandal has upset you most? Or maybe you think it’s not as bad as it seems and sport is ok? Let us know in the comments.