Clean athletics unrealistic idea - Michael Johnson

Athletics free from doping is an unrealistic idea - Michael Johnson

 

Four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson believes it is "unrealistic" to think athletics will ever be drug-free.

Six Jamaicans, including former 100m world-record holder Asafa Powell and 2004 Olympic sprint relay champion Sherone Simpson, tested positive for banned substances earlier this year.
"Athletics is a microcosm of real life," said American Johnson.
"In real life you will always have people who cheat. It's unrealistic to expect athletics to be drug-free."

ohnson, who won 4x400m gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games, the 200m and 400m double in Atlanta four years later, and the 400m title in Sydney in 2000, believes the Olympics is the saving grace of athletics but thinks the sport needs to adapt in order to improve its appeal.

"Other sports may have fans that can put up with [doping] but in athletics the fans want to see the Olympians hold true to the Olympic ideal and values," he said.
"To be honest, if it weren't for the Olympics, athletics would be dead. Off the face of the earth."
He added: "Everyone loves to see people have a race but we're seeing too much emphasis placed on world records and not on the battle between the athletes.
"We must look closely at the sport and see what it is that people actually want to watch.
"Do we need the women's discus? A 3000m steeplechase and 5000m at the same meeting? Nothing has happened to change the sport in my time.
"We need to look at a new format, package it better to engage more fans. Other sports have done it to increase their fan base, why can't athletics?"

 

Leander Paes - To win a doubles medal in Olympics close to my heart

CHANDIGARH: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes on Tuesday said that the thought of winning a doubles medal in Olympics is close to his heart and he wants to fulfill the wish.

"I would say to win a doubles medal in Olympics, this is close to my heart. I am looking forward to get a good partner. Another one I would say is to win a career grand slam in mixed doubles," Paes told reporters after featuring in an exhibition match at Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) stadium on Tuesday.

Paes, who along with CLTA chairman Rajan Kashyap addressed the news conference, was asked if he still has any wish that has not been fulfilled yet.

Paes, whose father Dr Vece Paes was also present, said while cricket was definitely like a religion in India, over the years tennis has also grown in popularity.

"I think we need to open more professional tennis academies like the DLTA in Delhi. We are also trying to start one in Mumbai, where I live," the senior Paes said.

Asked about the upcoming London Olympics, Paes said he was hoping to get a good partner to win a medal in the doubles.

"I do have a preference, but some conversations have to be private," he said when asked if he had a specific partner in mind.

Commenting on the Indian tennis scene, Paes said it has a great future and apart from him and Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, there was promising talent coming up.

He heaped praise on players like Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri.

"Indian tennis at the moment has a great mix of age and experience. It's good time that young ones are developed (in singles)."

Earlier, Paes and Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda defeated budding trainees of the CLTA, Anuj Bhatti and Ranjit Singh 7-6 in an exhibition match.

Meanwhile, in an initiative to promote sports in rural areas of Haryana, the state government on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CLTA.

The MoU, signed in the presence of Hooda and Paes, would provide training, boarding, lodging, schooling and participation during tournaments to the 15 selected players from rural areas of Haryana and the state government would sponsor those players, Kashyap said.

CLTA would also provide technical assistance to the state government for development and promotion of the game.

Kashyap said the CLTA would also offer advanced training facilities on mutually agreed terms for coaches and player at CLTA centre.

It would also ensure that the selected trainees were admitted in reputed schools.

Praising Haryana's initiative, Paes said that rural talent was abundant in the country.

"Rural people are tough, rugged, especially in Punjab and Haryana, where they have done so well in wrestling, hockey and other sports," he said.

Paes, who will play the role of a mentor and brand ambassador of CLTA, will be visiting here once in a while.

Paes is also trying to get a Spanish coach for the youngsters.

Meanwhile, replying to a question on cricketer Yuvraj Singh, Paes wished him a speedy recovery.

"We also love him so much and want to see him back in action soon. Yuvi is a great player. He has conquered this ailment (cancer). (The) entire tennis fraternity wishes him good health," he said.

South Africa should host Olympics as Mandela tribute

Nelson Mandela: Call to give South Africa the Olympics as tribute

South Africa should be chosen as host for the Olympics as a tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela, according to their first athlete to win an Olympic medal in the post-apartheid era.

Elana Meyer, now 47, won a silver in the 10,000m at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, becoming the first South African athlete to claim a medal since their re-admission to the Olympic movement.
She was denied the chance to compete at Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 by South Africa's exclusion from competition after the 1960 Games, but believes the influence of Mandela, who died last week, aged 95, was crucial from the moment he emerged from 27 years of imprisonment in 1990.

Mandela's coffin arrived in his ancestral home in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa, on Saturday ahead of his state funeral on Sunday.

"If the Olympic Games can come to Africa and South Africa it will be in honour of Madiba [Mandela's tribal name]. I think it's time. It's Africa's time. It would be a fitting way to honour a great leader," said Meyer, talking on Sportshour on the BBC World Service.
"Nelson Mandela played such a significant part in my life. The moment that he was released from prison in 1990 I knew things would change. That really gave me the hope and inspiration that I might have the chance to compete internationally. Barcelona came at just the right time. I was 25 then and certainly I could not have waited a moment later."
Meyer regards the moment she met Mandela during the 1992 Games as one of her career highlights, and says it lifted the whole South African Olympic team.
"It was very special when I met Madiba in the Olympic village in 1992," she said. "He came to wish the team well and the whole team were inspired by his presence and his words. It was a magical moment.
"You could feel the pressure. We only came out of isolation three months before the Games, it's not like I had a wealth of experience racing at that level, and people's expectations were high.
"There was a lot of focus and not just on your athletic performance, but it was still an amazing privilege to be [one of] those first athletes in 30 years to walk onto the track and [I was] inspired by his presence."
Despite the high expectations, Meyer fought through a strong field, which included Britain's Liz McColgan, then the world champion, and eventual winner Derartu Tulu, from Ethiopia, to finish second and win South Africa's first Olympic medal since 1960.
"I didn't get a gold medal, but it was certainly a victory for many many South Africans," she recalled. "That's what I was celebrating. It was the end of years of isolation."
After the race, she embarked on a lap of honour with Tulu, walking hand in hand around the track. It was one of the most enduring images from that Olympics - a black Ethiopian carrying her national flag and a white South African clutching the Olympic flag.
She said: "It was a spontaneous celebration and I probably didn't realise at that moment, but it turned out to be really significant. Even today people keep telling me where they were at that moment."
That medal, and the iconic image of her with Tulu, convinced the Western Cape runner that Mandela's vision for South Africa could be achieved.
"Coming back to South Africa, I was blown away by the reception from South Africans across the board," she added.
"'Soweto loves Elana'... I mean it was still two years before we got a democratic government. It was an incredible and unexpected period for me. It gave me hope that we did have great potential as the rainbow nation."

IOC clears Indian athletes to compete in Sochi

LAUSANNE: Indian athletes have been cleared to compete in the Winter Games in Sochi after the country complied with the IOC's ethics rules and avoided becoming the first country expelled from the Olympics in more than 40 years.

Still to be determined is whether the few Indian athletes who have qualified for Sochi compete for their country or under the Olympic flag.

The International Olympic Committee gave a reprieve to India's suspended national Olympic body on Tuesday after a long impasse that had threatened to lead to the expulsion of the world's second most populous nation.

The move came two days after the Indian Olympic Association amended its constitution to bar any officials charged with a crime from running for election, as demanded by the IOC.

"We think that is a major step in the right direction," IOC President Thomas Bach said. "We are now looking forward to the implementation of the new rules by transparent and open and democratic elections in the Indian Olympic Association."'

Had India not fallen into line by Tuesday, it risked becoming the first country kicked out of the Olympic movement since South Africa was expelled in 1970 for its apartheid policies.

The Indian body was suspended by the IOC last December after electing secretary-general Lalit Bhanot, who spent 10 months in jail on corruption charges related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Bach said the IOA remains suspended pending the holding of elections under the new constitution.

Although the new elections will not take place until Feb. 9, two days after the start of the Sochi Olympics, Bach said the IOC has "taken precautions for the athletes and made sure the athletes will not suffer from this procedure."

In that case, Bach said, Indians would compete as "independent athletes" under the Olympic flag, with no Indian flag or symbols allowed at the venues or opening ceremony.

If the elections can take place before the Sochi Olympics and satisfy the IOC demands, the suspension would be lifted and the athletes could compete with their national flag and anthem.

India is likely to send a three-member team to Sochi, led by luger Shiva Keshavan, who will be participating in his fifth Winter Olympics. Keshavan, who set a continental record at the Asia Cup in Nagano, Japan, last December, is hoping to become the first Indian to win a medal at a Winter Games.

India can also send one male and one female Alpine skier to the games.

Saina Nehwal says I have worked hard and prepared well for the tournament

KUALA LUMPUR: Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal and Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China have been put in same group for the BWF Super Series Finals, that will be played here Dec 11-15, after the draws were announced at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium on Tuesday.

Japan's Minatsu Mitani and Yeon Ju Bae of South Korea are the other players in Group B besides Saina, who is seeded second, and Xuerui.

"I have worked hard and prepared well for the tournament. I feel I am ready to challenge in Kuala Lumpur," said Saina in a statement.

Saina's first match will be relatively easier as she will face World No.13 Minatsu against whom she has a 3-1 record and they too will be meeting for the first time this year.

Next up will be Olympic champion Xuerui. Saina has a 2-5 record against the top-rated Chinese. The 23-year-old Saina will have a tough outing against the Chinese in their first match of 2013. Their last meeting was in the 2012 edition of the Finals.

Saina will finish her group encounter against World No.7 Yeon, against whom she has a 5-4 win-loss record.

Saina said there won't be any easy matches.

"Whatever the draw is, there will be no easy matches in the Superseries finals and I am completely prepared for it. I will take each match as it comes and give my best," said Saina.

China's Shixian Wang, Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, South Korean Ji Hyun Sung and Chinese Taipei's Tzu Ying Tai are in Group A of the year-ending $500,000 showpiece event. The top two from each group will progress to the semi-finals.

Though Saina has not won a single tournament this year, she has maintained the No.2 position in the Super Series rankings this season, enabling her to qualify for the Dec 11-15 tournament.

With three Super Series semi-final appearances in the 12-leg calendar, Saina, an Olympic bronze medallist qualified quiet for the tourney where she finished runners up two years ago in 2011.

Saina, who is also a two-time semi-finalist here, does have a good chance if she finds her footing and form at the event which pits the eight best players of the current year.

Chinese Taipei's Tai, who won the Malaysia Open, is lucky to enter the event because tournament regulations stipulate a maximum of two players per country, automatically ruling out No.8 Yihan Wang with compatriots Shixian and Xuerui ahead of her.