03/07/2009 Andy Murray needs to learn some manners- wait and walk off the court with you opponentwhen beaten. He does himself no favours in the popularity stakes.

03/07/2009 USA Youth Champs

03/07/2009 Asian Youth Games: China dominate track and field

02/07/2009 It's time this site moved on- I have been running it on my own for 10 years now, and I think I am becoming a bit stale. So I a suggesting a radical change- I will change the site to a CMS site(Joomla) where others can contribute and make the site more dynamic and less single minded. So I would like people to contact me who would be interested in adding articles, add results and develop the site into a exciting contribution to athletics,

If you want to see sort of how it works I am currently developing a CMS site at Laugharne- have a look at you will see how it could work.

I am sure this is the way forward- not a Forum- we have that- but a dynamic athletics site that can reflect the views and news of several people, not just me. If you are interested let me know, I think it would be a major development in terms of providing coverage of the athletics scene. Its sort of fun, well obviously I enjoy it- and we are archived by the Britih Library, so posterity beckons.

I forgot how good this song was "Shaggy -It Wasn't me" I do love music as you will all have gathered over the years. And "feel the rush" a celebration of sport .

30/06/2009 Been busy doing the Welsh Schools Cup and Plate programme- the only thing I type up, and I must say I admire those who do this sort of thing regularly- dealing with PE teachers is a some-times frustrating procedure, but it is at the printers and hopefully not too many typo's- but lets hope the kids have a good competition.

So out of touch but see that the English Team for the European Youth has been announced- sorry correction there are a few outside of England included. It seems a huge shame that Europe- well I think probably UKA, will not accept at a Youth Level, that England , Wales and Scotland should compete as Nations- that would help develop the Sport. Left out N.I because many will run for Ireland under the sports agreement between the 2 Nations.

I am , as you will have gathered not a huge fan of the GB concept-it's sits uneasy within the UK political divide of individual Nations. Particularly as the GB Team is using it as a development for England athletes- there are better Youth athletes not selected, because they are seen as promising at a higher level-and have therefore not been been selected.So England are picking and choosing athletes, and the other regions within UK are struggling to get representation- so David Guest and Dewi Griffith's (Wales) have done very well- but so they should -they are talented and very committed.

30/06/2009 Just got this Newsletter- Wrexham-some interesting thoughts.

25/06/2009 I am still in shock about Comedy Charles plans for the UK Athletics team to train overseas. A small poll of 4 are equally spitting blood. I have emailed the Lib Dems asking for this to be raised in the House. It is totally unacceptable- our Home Team should train at Home- there will be media wherever they go- he hopes- though not quite sure who will be that interested world wide in the GB Athltics team. What the hell is the point of having the olympics at Home, might of well as let the French win- we would be £10bn better off and they could train overseas from the event-in the UK. Or is he worried about the weather. Apparently worried they will slope off to see mummy or their friends- get a grip Charles ,if they are not professional and keen enough to do well, don't select them.

Strange people the Dutch- one of my close friends is also Dutch.

Where are they going- hope not Holland.

25/06/2009 I have just read a report that the GB Team for 2012 will train overseas to avoid Media intrusion . This is obviously complete madness, a waste of money, and sums up the attitude of the new Coaching staff who still seem to think money grows on trees. I hope some-one in Government explains to them if they do not prepare for the Games in the UK, they can forget state funding.

"BRITISH athletes have snubbed the 2012 Olympic pre-games training camp in Aldershot in favour of preparing abroad.The blow to the town was delivered by UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee, who believes the athletes should complete their final preparations away from media intrusion and the pressures of everyday home life, which could distract them."

24/06/2009 The Athletics Performance Industry has got the "earn money guys" involved- subscribe to our site to get rankings etc, D'ont do it all the info is out there for free. Your choice.

24/06/2009 "RE Blackheath and Bromley "Im the Cardiff AC british league team manager, and i thought i had better let you know that your post on your home page regarding the BAL at bromley, featuring christian malcolm, thie, benjamin etc al is false. None of these athletes, unfortunately will be competing.

The honest truth, is that they have all been offered races abroad, cant really blame them, the message i had of them, was if the british league paid the athletes, then we would run there instead of travelling around europe to compete every time.

The other issue is that it clashes with welsh schools, so many of our talented juniors, who have some early exposure to senior competition in british league will miss out on this match too. Its a shame, as the english, scottish and irish schools generally have their champs the following week - so its only the welsh clubs who suffer. This has been the situation for a number of years now - very frustrating. Most of them could probably benefit from higher competition, but you cant argue against an athlete who wants to win a national title, so we encourage them to compete in the welsh schools, to our detriment.

Cardiff AC won the first british league in cardiff, and we hope to build on that in the next match, and hopefully get promoted to div 1 of the british league.

Anyway, just wanted to mention that, just in case anybody does travel on a false premise to watch, doubtful that it would happen, but best be safe and not disappoint anybody.

24/06/2009 " I attended this years North Wales Championships at Deeside, showed my coaching pass but was told coaches had to pay. I have never known this before. There is no charge for coaches to attend the England or Welsh Championships and indeed I can't recollect being asked to pay admission to any meeting in recent years ."

23/06/2009 Wish I lived nearer - this sounds a great meeting and only £1.00 entry-Blackheath and Bromley 4th july-BAl league and they hope to have Christian Malcom, James Thie, Tim Benjamin and more competing.

23/06/2009 BMC do not charge coaches, nor did Mason Trophy. Actually I am not sure many would- lokks like SEAA are the exeption. But if you - as a coach- have been charged for entry, please let me know- we will name and shame, its the only way. So let me know of any events that charge coaches an admission fee. Thanks.

22/06/09 It's a perfect day in Wales- lets forget Cram et al. Interesting question I received "Maybe you've covered this ground before, but, Do athletes sign contracts before they are given lottery or non-private company money? If they do, is there a clause that states if they use drugs etc, they will have to pay back all monies given? Seems like a good idea to me."

My reply, which I think is accurate, but I am sure you will tell me if I am wrong was "I think the answer is No they do not have to re-pay funding, but can be forced to pay back prize money during the period they cheated. Whether a private company would sue them for loss of reputation has not happened, but the legal argument would probably be the athlete fulfilled their contract- I am not aware that Nike have sued Marion Jones for example.Personally I think they should sign a contract. and if they cheat re-pay the funding they have received."

Seems as you say pretty simple, but for some reason UKA do not have this clause to my knowledge. As you know at every Entry for a Champs you are made aware you agree that you have not used illegal drugs.

Its a day of questions "Attended the SEAA Champs this weekend to support one of our athletes competing...Travelled 400 miles over the weekend to Watford and back both days. On Saturday i see England Athletics present a cheque for £70,000 to the SEAA Competitions Ltd towards competition. Great....Yet as a volunteer coach I had to pay to get into the championships. We coaches give up a large amount of time and spend a lot on travel to support our athletes. Yet the sport does not help us. Perhaps use some of the £70,000 so waive the entry fee for coaches.I think they should support there coaches not put them off.... Without us they would not have any athletes competing."

The two tier structure under UKA/UKSport is crazy. Coaches should attend free- and maybe get paid some pocket money for the hard work they put in. The great and the good should realise this -it's the grass roots that get kids into the sport, give their coaches abreak- a free entry at least.

They do it in Wales, and WAA have no money. I wish UK Sport /BOAwould just let the regions within the unhappy alliance of GB get on with it and compete as Individual Nations. England is so over -funded compared to the regions of Wales,Scotland and N.I.

21/06/2009 Enjoyed the 2nd day and GB did OK, with the team they had- which was under strength due to selection reasons I guess- but some bright moments. Marred again by the whining Cram who cannot let go of his moans about the rule changes, but I thought the changes were OK. No False starts in the sprints that I saw, and the event went well. The BBc were obviously disappointed Phillips did not win- the commentary teams guess that he would go 18+ were wrong- though Edwards obviously realised it was not going to happen.

The thing that did please me is that suddenly Cram et al seemed to agree with the long held view on this site that GB should field a full team at the Olympics ( and I assume Worlds) and that this idea of only focusing on Medal/Final potential athletes was a flawed strategy. Well said this for years, so hopefully UKA and the BOA will realise that as a Nation we want to see Athletes compete in every discipline. Much is said that athletics is not a Team sport, but actually watching and listening to the Athlete's they like competing as a Team- lets hope that this view can continue until 2012 nd that the whole of UKA will get behind a squad to compete for GB- and that all contending for places will support each other. It happens in relay teams, so why not for the individual events. Facts are GB athletes need to encourage each-other if we are to do well in London.

To me its obvious- develop depth in each event and get them working off each other. Other individual sports manage it-like swimming,cycling-so athletics should be able to do the same. Its the Crams and the Coe's who bang on about it being an individual sport.

Chambers did well for his country- Cram sounded less than thrilled at his double. Proves the ability of the man to come into the 200m at shot notice and his commitment to Team GB, despite its rejection of him for relays and Olympics. He has made himself a lot of friends over the w/e.

20/06/2009 The BBC really need to change the Team covering athletics- Cram just whinges on about distance running, changes to the competition rules, that it seems to me actually mean these long races might go a bit quicker, rather than a plod around and sprint over the last 800m. His dislike for Chamber's is apparent- yet happy to cover up Benjamin's breaking of the rules by running out of lane. Sad man. Then as usual , in the events , they manage to get it all wrong in calling where GB athletes will end up. A a pair of clowns, paid by the BBC. I thought the BBC was meant to be unbiased- not Cram. I pay to air my views on this site, Cram is paid and should report, not slag off the Organisers because he does not like what they have done to try and make the sport more interesting to a wider public.

20/06/2009 Well done to the Team management- Rikki Fifton had a niggle, so run him and breaks down- why not replace him- oh, of course they won't let Chambers near the relay Team. Sorry, but this is the sort of rubbish that puts people off competing in Athletics.

20/06/2009 I was bought up to Walk if I knicked a cricket ball and was caught-especially if the Umpire missed it. Steve Backley is correct, Steve Cram is wrong- if you have broken the rules by running out of lane, then it should be admitted, not hoping it will be overlooked. Its called sportsmanship.

20/06/2009 " CECILIA MORRISON blitzed a British middle distance record this week, just a fortnight before celebrating her 69th birthday.

The Guildford-based athlete smashed the previous best 1500m time for the 65-69 group by more than nine seconds in racing to victory at the Southern Counties Veterans Championships.

And her run at Kingston in 5mins 54.6secs came just a month after the retired aromatherapist from Queen Elizabeth Park in Stoughton obliterated the 16-year-old British 3000m standard by an amazing 10 seconds.

19/06/2009 Apart from the huge salaries some are earning, for what appears to be incompetence -or doing a job many would happily do for far less, have we seen any figures on their Pension plans-and to be sure they will have them. What these highly paid people actually think they are doing for the sport is questionable. We have a load of people, probably thousands giving their time for nothing-no money at all. And at the top are people raking off large salaries, claming they are doing something- well they are not. They are just admin people- and should be paid an admin wage. No personal risk, they have developed nothing of value to society- just helping to manage a sport- which is far bigger than them . They may think they are very important, but actually they are nothing without the athletes and the volunteers who make the sport work.

The UK seems to suffer at the moment from a contagious disease where people are over-valuing their worth- and the people who agree the wages are the same group who benefit from that same over-valuation of value. I have no problem with an entrepreneur making a fortune-if they risked all to develop a business fine. But not happy with people taking no financial risk and earning huge sums- and that's just sport administration. Maybe the Police should investigate more abuses than just the low-life MP's.

19/06/2009 Email received "Many governing bodies are sceptical and some downright opposed to the interference of the BOA in essentially coaching and development matters. Head coaches and performance directors feel the BOA should not be directly involved in something that is their responsibility and have serious doubts about the role of Sir Clive Woodward. One of the reasons the BOA are in debt is because of Lord Moynihan's over ambitious and mainly unwanted excursion into areas away from their normal core business.

Another organisation with problems over funding is England Sport. They have recently discovered that as much as £20 million pounds was spent over a period of several years upto 2007 that was never audited and not part of their normal accounts. Former employees as well as their former chairman, Trevor Brooking, will be called in to account for this but it doesn't look too good.

Vast sums of money are being spent on sport but is it providing value for money? These two organisations have large budgets, especially England Athletics. Both have considerable, some would say undue, influence on how sport is run. If it wasn't for London 2012 I am sure budgets would be cut but more importantly the role of the different organisations in sport should be questioned.

We could actually cut budgets and still fund sport adequately if directed in a better way. How can organisations like the BOA and England Athletics be trusted to lead sport when they have these financial irregularities? It's all about power and self interest!"

18/06/2009 Eire European Youth Olympic Team announced

18/06/2009 So the BOA is on the verge of bankruptcy- well they claim the are not but the London organisation Committe have bunged them £2m quid. According to reports they lost £1.3m in 2008. As usual they claim it was just an advance payment an the rest of the claims I don't get- they say it was a Games Year so income was up £10m, so how was losses increased. Apparently they spent £368,000 on consultants- I would love to know who they were ? Sounds like Woodward is spending freely - but no-one seems to know on what.

Questions should be asked therefore, and especially on the competence of Lord Moynihan( who runs the organisation-well is Chairman,). He was outspoken about Dwain Chambers, but seemed to think C.O was OK.

BOA claim "The BOA is not funded or controlled by government, has no political interests and is completely dependent upon commercial sponsorship and fundraising income. The BOA is the strong, independent voice for British Olympic Sport."

So why the LOC loan ?

Given Moynihan's long connections within Governement it would seem strange that he has not had the BOA funded- but their affairs are shrouded in secrecy. Since they claim to have no Government funding you cannot serve a FOI notice on them.

Google Moynihams political history- he has been long involved.

Fair play he was a cox at Moscow Olympic Games for the Great Britain men's rowing VIII winning a silver medal.

Th BOA are like the British Commonwelath Games organisations- full of self importance, and I would remind you all it was the Scottish,English and Welsh CG who caused the Nationality debate.

Well if a loan/payment from LOC is not government funding, then I am stupid. They bleat consistently about their independence and impartial aproach- well some might disagree- Chambers re Oghurboru.

The financial facts seem to suggest that they have a huge overhead which is not matched by income. You will note that if you go to their website they only list 2007 accounts. Now that really shows how straight and honest they are about their fiancial affairs.

16/06/2009 "The talented Ciara Mageean of Lisburn AC has been named as the Crowne Plaza Athlete of the Month for May.This was awarded following Mageean’s terrific performance at the Irish Schools’ Track and Field Championships when she set a new Irish Junior 800m record of 2:05.38, beating none other than her sporting hero, Sonia O’Sullivan’s 1987 record of 2:05.72.As Ciara is only 17, this time also stands as a youth record and puts her on top of the 800m rankings for 2009 and in the top 20 All-time list in the 800m."

16/06/2009 According to UKA Laura Turner came 2nd in 100m- good athlete, but the actual results do not feature her "DKB-ISTAF IAAF Golden League, Berlin, Germany 14 June 2009

In the women’s 100m races, Laura Turner (Harrow AC) finished in second place in 11.46 while Kadi-Ann Thomas (Marshall Milton Keynes) recorded 11.59 in the B Race. In the C Race Emily Freeman (Wakefield Freeman), 11.33 and Ashlee Nelson (City of Stoke) 11.36 both ran lifetime bests. The results are here .Maybe I have misread, but looks like sloppy PR. Mabe it was a different meet- the UKA is the worst site I have ever viewed-all pages flashing about, its hard to find anything .

15/06/2009 One has to feel sorry for WAA- probably the only decent Track event- and the Clock failed- the Mens 200m final. Maybe some other events worth while, but when you have an Olympic runner competing you would hope the timing system would work. Too often in events in Wales it fails,sadly- though normally the trackside clock in the Indoor meetings. Bad luck or bad administration ?

15/06/2009 Congrats to Ashlee Nelson- GB 100m selected at the age of 19. Best of luck, followed her for a few years.

14/06/2009 "American sprinter Sanya Richards ran the fastest women's 400m of the season at the Golden League opener in Berlin in a time of 49.57 seconds." World Champs looking interesting.

14/06/2009 Winners of Welsh U15/17 Champs were given free tickets to Super 8- nice gesture, but mid-week during exams and many were from North Wales.

13/06/2009 Look like the Super 8 had an attendance of about 2.500- not bad if they all paid-and that's a question, how many tickets were freebies?. But it seems that some did not attend due to "Sponsorship". What a load of crap, and I hope that these "Amateurs(sic)" now get kicked off UKA funding. According to the Telegraph "The inaugural Super8 event was marred by a sponsorship row last night following the withdrawal of Kelly Sotherton, Hannah England and Greg Rutherford. "

By sheer coincidence I had dinner with a good friend who works for Nike- we did not discuss athletics, but Nike spend a huge amount sponsoring Sports people. Good for them and maybe the sport. "Sources close to UK Athletics officials labelled the decision of Nike “small-minded” and “appalling”, although an official statement was more diplomatic. "

So we worry about what MP's are getting- well now time we have athletes declare their sponsorship income if they are also being funded by UK Sport-especially if the report above is correct that they will not run if their sponsors are unhappy. This is only fair to the tax payer who has funded( and still is) their development.

Sport and Sponsors have an unholy alliance sometimes, but we cannot have an amateur sport being dictated to by the sponsors- and equally an Amateur sport cannot encourage athletes to get sponsorship and then stop them runnning using logo's. A few years ago my daughter was a kit carrier at an AAA meeting, TV by the BBC. They had to make sure all logo's were masked out of any clothing they wore- OK the BBC have an issue.

But an un-televised meeting in Cardiff, the launch of a new product -the Super 8 concept- and the Sport bodies still manage to fallout with the sponsors of athletes. Small minded, sorry it's the UK Sports bodies who want the cash.

I think we all need to know who is getting what from who- looks like another FOI summons on UK sport- though I am sure they will again claim not their business.

11/06/2009 Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu won her first 400m race since last September at the Montreuil meeting near Paris. Ohuruogo having won Olympic Gold was 2nd IAAF World Athletics Final and 4th at Golden Grand Prix in China. Dwain Chambers also won- but 10.17 is not going to challenge the World leaders.- and only marginally quicker than Craig Pickering 10.23 in a cold Cardiff Super 8.

11/06/2009 As a parent going through GCE' and A levels, in the middle of Summer sports, maybe the solution is to change the academic Year. So have all the exams in the Spring or Autumn-after all all kids are side tracked when it gets warm(sic) and sunny.The Baccalaureate Year is very different from the UK School Year. For example the exams at Atlantic College,Wales start 4 May: Start of IB exams 21 May: End of IB Exams and end of year for first year students. They then have a few weeks off.

Just a thought, but we expect a lot from kids to both do well academically and succed in sport. And I am sure most parents find one long summer holiday difficult to manage, if like me , both parents work. I would rather see 4 terms with even holiday periods- and the exams in the Winter period.

11/06/2009 All is OK at Man Utd -Gordon Brown has spoken""He's one of the most brilliant players in the world. I think people will be sad that he's lost to the game in England.

"At the same time, I know Sir Alex Ferguson well, and I know he'll have plans that will be rebuilding and renewing his team. And I would expect that Manchester United and English football will emerge not weaker, but emerge in a new way and probably stronger in the long run".

I was worried that Gordon had more important things to do , but he obviously follows Football and "Britain hasTalent" more than worrying about his last few months in Politics and the economy. Gordon, we are not morons, we see your clever little game to become a man of the people. Sadly he has not the smoothness of Billy Liar. Though we still have the chief enforcer in the background, Lord of all he wants. presumable Gordon will lend Man Utd a few Billion if they need it, money is easily come nowadays-just print it or "quantative ease".

Anyway for one last time lets have it for that classic song. Hope I got the right link-Jilted John it was meant to be.

10/06/2009 I was planning to go to Cardiff for Super 8, but to be honest the thought of driving 3 hours(90 mins each way)there and back is not appealing and then I will pay a huge sum to watch. I have to work all day,tired at the end of the day (I am now officially old)- now a Saturday PM trip would have been OK.

Hope they have a good crowd, but like everything in athletics seems to work around those in the sport, not the spectators -and I am not sure I mean just the athletes.

09/06/2009 Been emailed a link to David Greene's run.

0906/2009 Re below apparently Championship Bests do not have to have a legal wind- don't ask me why, I don't make the rules. Sounds pretty silly, but there we are.

08/06/2009 David Greene(Wales) ran a good race in the 400mH at the Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague, running in 48.62s, a Welsh Record, andwell inside the Qualifying Standard for this Summer's World Championships in Berlin.Should be a good race at the Welsh Seniors where he will compete against Matt Elias, who looks like he is coming back into good form after a few years of injury.

08/06/2009 Welsh Age U17/20 attached- but an error I think- Rachel Johncock, U17W100m 11.88 despite a fine run, was wind assisted +2.8 and so not a championship best or age group equal time.- something the results coordinators seemed to have missed in their enthusiasm.

06/06/2009 Seb Coe might think that UK Athletes need to pull their finger out, well England Cricketer's should just not be paid. A pathetic performance, against a team whose only claim to fame is that they have flat wickets- I played for Ajax as an under 9.

Something is going really wrong in the sport-not sure what it is exactly, but the sad predictions made several years that London winning the Olympic bid would not encourage grass roots seem to be coming home. Once UKA developed a system that was purely geared to getting Athletes to the London Olympics it was bound to have a negative effect- select a few for academies and favour them , then the remainder feel over-looked or get disenchanted with the sport.

UKA - through various missives have made the sport so demanding on lifestyle that they have isolated the mavericks, the one's who maybe have the talent, but do not fit in with the system. They have made it so clear that to succeed you have to do this and that, work hard, give up everything, no wonder the kids are walking away in droves. They will end up with a small group of over trained athletes who will break down constantly.

Once you take the fun out of sport you take the majority out of it. You end up with a small group hoping to make money- and that is not -or should not -be the ethos of sport. Sadly most in the sport seem interested in what they can make, rather than competing for fun.