Timely Thoughts

The 2008 World Indoor Champs in Valencia, Spain, delivered a numerous amount of fantastic performances and displays of why this sport is great.

It also delivered its fair share of surprises and upsets from Tamsyn Lewis over 800m to Sudan's stunning win over the Men's 800m by Abubaker Kaki Khamis.

Also worth mentioning was the gutsy and determined performance of Belgium's Tia Hellebaut in the Women's Pentathlon .

In some instances it was business as usual for the likes of Russia's Yelena Isinbaeva in the polevault and the affirmation that New Zealand's Valerie Vili is the real deal in the Women's shotput.

The new World Record established by Yelena Soboleva for Women over 1500m confirmed Yelena is a good name to have.

There was also the winning of Ethiopia's Tariku Bakele in the Men's 3000m where the brother to the more famous and successful Kenisisa Bekele emerging slightly from the daunting shadow of the King of Track Distance running. This performance augers well for the future attacks on the world 5 and 10000m records as this success should surely boost Tariku to higher levels. The younger Bekele has assisted his brother in his attacks on records and now with an extra boost shall surely be able to take him further down the line in those attempts.

One of the grand specatacles at the end of every games is the 4x400m relay finals and boy is it normally a bun fight, well indoors its an accident waiting to happen. Great entertainment again but not so for Russian Men's 400m team.

A great championship and a spectacle of the highest order

Regretably this was the news of the hour today

Haile Gebrselassie says he will not run in the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of the city's air pollution levels

this was always a distinct possibility especially since breathing problems caused Gebrselassie to drop out of the London Marathon in 2007.

With the expected poor air conditions of Beijing this comes as know surprise, the Ethiopain athlete has stated that he has intentions of participating in the 10000m however for a great many they would have liked for Geb to have sealed his legacy as one of the greatest athletes ever by winning a Marathon Gold.

Well this is not to be and eyes have now turned towards Paula Radcliffe who co-incidently suffers from exercise induced asthma which could be greatly affected due to the known and well documented air conditions in China's capital.

The heat and pollution will be two further complications the athletes will need to face, as though running 26 miles at an effort beyond most humans is not a test already.

TheEd

Tamsyn Lewis does it for Australia.

A year ago I wrote about being happy that Lewis may finally realise her ability and that maybe she was becoming a true professional athlete. Well today in Valencia, Spain, she delivered. Lewis ran a tactically sound race to win the Women's 800m title, an outcome that would finally provide her with a medal on the World stage and Gold to boot.

There has never ever been any doubt about this Aussie's talent however there were always questions about her commitment to the sport. Yesterday we wrote about the human spirit on display through the performances in the Women's pentathlon 800m and yet again we have a celebration of the human spirit, all thanks to Tamsyn Lewis.

The race itself was tactical and it was almost as though the field was overawed by the legendary presence of Maria Mutola. The Mozambique athlete dominated affairs at the head of the field at a pace that suited her and it was not until the home country's representative Mayte Martínez (winner of Osaka 2007 800m bronze) attempted to go round the athletes on the backstraight with 350 to go, that Lewis shot through the inside past Mutola in the process sparking race favourite Ukraine's Tetiana Petlyuk to bolt off; immediately gapping the field with Lewis chasing and the Spaniard in 3rd approaching the bell.

Down the back straight the powerful Mutola went past Martinez into 3rd and looked to be making the quickest progress round the last bend. Coming into the home straight Lewis switched to attack down the straight and incredibly with great gusto (provided by way of "Come on Tamsyn" from my side) she took the race. Much to her dismay, shock, bewilderment and add your own words for totally unexpected, the Aussie grabbed Gold.

Her delight carried her all the way through the medal ceremony and who doubts late into the night, Valencia is a nice place to Tamsyn afterall.

Lewis said that she couldn't believe that she had won.

Oh my God, I'm just waking up. This is such a good surprise, I was wondering what I was doing out there. Then I realised that I could win the race. This is amazing, I still can't believe it," said Lewis.

And why my enthusiasm, well yet again this was an example of what can be achieved by sticking to the task at hand through out one's life. Too often we give up along the way, not realising that perseverance if also rewarded quite often

Life may be about the journey however the rewards along the way do make it sweeter

The World Indoor Track Championships provided real value for money in Valencia, Spain, on Day 1

Whereas Time-to-Run is aimed more at the running part of athletics and mainly 800m to the marathon and above with plans to cover Trail and Adventure, we cannot not comment on the magnificent performances of Tia Hellebaut and Kelly Sotherton in the 800m, the final event of the Women's Pentathlon.

Going into the 800m Belgium's Hellebaut, a champion high jumper and winner of 2 World indoor High Jump titles, led Britain's Sotherton by 107 point, 3994 to 3887.

In order for Sotherton to win the Gold she had to beat Hellebaut by 7 seconds, if she was to do this she would need to muster a massive push towards setting up the 7.7 second cushion once they crossed the line. The 800m indoors consists of 4x200m and Sotherton clad with her white socks, ala Paula Radcliffe style, set off at a slightly suicidal pace for the first 200m in 30 seconds. She was tracking Polish athlete, Karolina Tyminska, and at 400m in 1:03.48, there seemed a distinct possibility that if she maintained a certain tempo and that Hellebaut faded the Gold would be hers. The Belgium athlete did not look good at this point and she was making mistakes with the tracking and attempted passing of other athletes all adding to the loss of energy.

With a lap to go at 600m, the clock read 1.37 for Sotherton and her lips were a shade of greyish white telling the viewer the extent of the stress of 5 events on one day plus a grueling 800m faster than she had every run before. The Brit grit her teeth and pumped her arms drawing from her last bits of will and determination to set-up a new Personal Best of 2:09.95. Her performance was phenomenal to say the least however what was to be witnessed next from Tia Hellebaut was simply staggering to watch. The tall bespectacled athlete began to weave and falter as she drove herself towards the line summoning from her very depths the ability to put one leg in front of the other. Even this was proving a task as her legs began to move in different directions causing her to stagger from left to right, alongside her Ukraining athlete, Lyudmila Blonska, was fighting a battle of her own to stay upright and she went crashing to the ground.

At the same time, Hellebaut's tall figure began the decent towards the track surface and it seemed as though there was an invisible figure that was stopping her from hitting the tartan. She did crash down however her body crossed the line in the process.

And with this process she denied Sotherton the Gold by a measely 12 points. Her time was 2:16.42, 6.47 seconds behind and 1 second plus enough for Gold.

The two athletes reminded us why this sport is great and gave all of us who bore witness a sense of value to living through them.

Thank you

TheEd

News just out and Paula Radcliffe is out of London Marathon 2008. Radcliffe has won the prestigious London Marathon on 3 occasions previously, 2002 on her debut , 2003 when setting the World Record of 2:15:25 and 2005 when her pit stop hugged all the headlines instead of her superb performance of 2:17.42.

Radcliffe has stated that she is bitterly disappointed as she would have seen London as a perfect test before this year's Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

The 34-year-old damaged her right toe while training at altitude at her Albuquerque base in New Mexico.

The British athlete mentioned the importance of recovering properly before she faces her greatest test of all and the one that is all important, Gold in the marathon at Beijing.

There are still 5 months to the Olympics and Women's marathon World Record holder hopes to be in peak condition for her greatest challenge after suffering in Athens 2004 .

The Olympic Marathon is one event that Radcliffe hopes will seal her legacy with a Gold winning performance.

How in heavens name did Victor Conte come to be given so much credit as to where his opinion is of importance with regards to everything as to how to fight drugs and how to have a forgiving nature?

The man is a charlatan and is one of the major reasons for the problems in our sport.

In the image attached is the 'infamous' ZMA that so many of the athletes have sung their praises about, from Marion Jones through to Linford Christie.

The common criminal Conte sold millions of dollars worth of his products with those buying the products believing the likes of Jones and Christie to have achieved their magnificent results due to the wonders of the products.

In the past this is what Jones had to say about ZMA - "I had a number of tests done on my blood at BALCO Laboratories," says Jones. "I learned that I was really deficient in both zinc and magnesium." ZMA fixed that, and she credits the supplement with helping her to sleep better and making her morning workouts more effective. "ZMA really has helped me," she says.

Yet we all see that things are certainly different and one wonders whether BALCO even wrote the athlete's script to sing the praises of the product while fleecing the general public. 

How Conte portrays himself as the redeeming 'messiah of athletics' is plain blasphemous (for better words) to say the least. This is truly one false profit and yet he has the gall to preach to athletic authorities and everyone (who will listen) about forgiveness and the like.

Oh my gosh, how does this worthless specimen get given the airtime, he denied and lied about everything, he did not come clean until he was squeezed into a corner. He has only given the prosecutors sufficient info to get himself out of the pooh.

There was earlier mention of how he could help the system to fight against the drug problems, I am all for it as long as he doesn't receive a cent for assisting, especially after bringing our sport into disrepute.

Not only has he duped athletics but he has duped baseball and a list of other sports.

He owes us all something for we have all been duped by the very sports stars he helped to cheat.

What forgiveness, how about some true repentness from this deceitful man?