Doping not rife in Kenya - David Rudisha coach Colm O'Connell

Brother Colm O'Connell from Mallow is coach to the 800m Olympic Champion & World record holder David Rudisha.

In an recent interview with the BBC, he denied that doping was rife on Kenya. This was after the country missed a deadline to prove to the World Anti-Doping Agency it is tackling cheating in athletics.

The short interview can be seen HERE

Alberto Juantorena of Cuba...Double Gold Champion at the 1976 Olympics

The Sporting Witness programme on the BBC World Service covers various notable performances from the history of sport. Recently, they covered the story of Alberto Juantorena of Cuba, a double Gold Champion at the 1976 Olympics.

Early in his career, the 6ft 2in Alberto Juantorena tried to get on the Cuban Basketball team but didn't quite make the grade. A Polish coach named Zygmunt Zabierzowski persuaded him to try athletics and Juantorena soon became one of the best athletes in the world over 400m.

At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, he was the hot favourite for Gold in the 400m. His coach however had other ideas and convinced him to try the 800m as well, a distance that was completely new to Juantorena.

After getting through to the 800m final, the 400m specialist with his 9ft stride not only won Olympic Gold but also set a new world record for the event with a time of 1:43:50.

Doing a double in the 400m/800m is highly unusual and is a feat that is very unlikely to be repeated.

The BBC podcast can be heard HERE

Video clip.....

BBC Podcast on exercise, food and alcohol...

In a series of three programmes for BBC Radio 4, Dr. Michael Mosley looked at the UK governments advice on Exercise, Food and Alcohol.

In the first part of the podcast (00:00-20:00), Dr.Mosley looks at the subject of exercise and how much is enough? In a BBC Horizon programme last year, it was shown that 3 minutes of intense exercise spread throughout the week delivered many of the health benefits of regular exercise. What it also showed was that people that stayed inactive for large portions of the day...e.g. office workers...were also the group most likely to be at risk.

In the second part of the podcast (22:00-44:00), they look at recommended daily level of fruit and veg and what it means. This might be of interest to anyone wishing to maintain a healthy diet.

In the final part (44:00-70:00), Dr.Mosley looks at the subject of alcohol and how much is too much. Not only can excessive drinking lead to various diseases in later life but as this news item shows, many people don't realise that there are a lot of calories in alclhol which can in turn lead to obesity issues.

The podcast can be heard HERE until the start of February 2013.

Background to the series on the BBC website.

Five Minute Interview with Jessica Ennis...

Olympic champion Jessica Ennis talks to Matthew Stadlen about what attracted her to the heptathlon, the importance of winning gold at London 2012, whether she will defend her title in Rio, and the difficulty of cold mornings.

The 5 minute interview can be seen on the BBC website HERE

BBC Panorama : The Truth about Sports Products...

This one hour BBC Panorama programme which was first shown last July looks at the various claims made about sports products.

It starts off with sports drinks, then running shoes and finishes with nutritional supplements. In each case, the direct evidence for supporting manufacturers claims is poor. In one study of Marathon runners, they found that there was no performance difference between those who drank a sports drink and those who just drank water.


As with all YouTube clips, watch it sooner rather than later. Video clips of TV programmes are often deleted. Worth watching.

IOC president expects some cheating at the 2012 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has admitted that he expects some athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs at the 2012 London Olympics. In an interview with BBC Sport, Rogge said...""There have been positive cases in each Olympic games since we have started testing. To say there will be no positive cases would be naive and misleading. I hope it's the case, but reality tells me that there may be positive cases. Everything that is humanly possible has been done in London to minimise doping. We hope that it will be the lowest possible number and we do everything we can to protect clean athletes."

Rogge's comments were backed on Twitter by women's world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe, who wrote: "Totally agree with Jaques Rogge's view of dopers and cheats. It is never ok and there are no excuses." A recent poll of British athletes suggested that around 90% wanted those who had been caught to remain banned for life rather than the current two year ban.

In concluding, the IOC president stated..."I think athletes are cheating because they believe that the others cheat. If they could live in the belief that the others are not cheating, they will not cheat themselves. We have a moral responsibility towards the parents and especially the mothers, because if they don't think we will do everything to protect the health of their children they will not send them any more to sports clubs - so we have to protect the young athletes".

The interview can be seen HERE

BBC interview Ultra-Marathon runner Dean Karnazes

When you look around the Internet or on Amazon in particular, you'll come across books about running. In the overall scheme of things, there probably isn't that many really especially if you compare it to more popular sports.

One of those books is Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. Possibly a name that isn't known so well on this side of the water but considering that he has just run across the United States, he is better known over there. Indeed, every time I visit the MapMyRun website, there is a big banner advert across the top about that trip.

This time he is in London and Evan Davis of the BBC conducted a short interview with him.

You can see it HERE