OK. Let’s get the hard bit of this over with.

I took part in the media quiz this week at the launch of the National Lottery’s Games Brain of Britain, which seeks to challenge the general populace with what it describes as "the ultimate test of Olympic and Paralympic knowledge."

The prize for that lucky ultimate winner will be a trip to the Olympic location of their choice. (I’m thinking no-one needs to be checking flights to Atlanta anytime soon. Although any such trips may be academic if that Icelandic volcano - you know, the one that’s been in the news a bit - continues to selfishly disrupt the sporting programme with its burped magma. Who does it think it is? Krakatoa?)

Of course, taking part was not the hard bit. I just had to sit down in the Docklands Museum at an old-fashioned, hinged-lid schooldesk which had a piece of cardboard on it with my name clearly printed. And then I had to press a buzzer if I wanted to supply an answer. As the meercats would say, "Simples!"

The hard bit was this: I didn’t win. And not only didn’t I win, I was rubbish.

(The person who wasn’t rubbish, and did win, was Simon Hart of the Telegraph. And after receiving his trophy from our ruler-wielding teacher and quizmaster for the day, Sir Steven Redgrave, our victor ludorum looked suitably schoolboyishly sheepish as he was decked out with a gown, mortar board and stick for photographic purposes. The prize was two tickets to Barcelona. He’s already going to Barcelona this summer for the European Championships! Ah well. There you go.)

But I digress.

What I was thinking was this. Hardly any of the things I remember about the Olympics and Paralympics seemed to correspond with the questions being asked of me at my school desk, which strongly reminded me of the kind of desk I longed to have at my first school, and was promised when I reached the top year, and which I never got, because our family had to move down south after someone in the Ministry of Transport decided the M62 motorway was going to be routed through our house…

But I digress.

To return to our relevant narrative, on the rare occasions when my knowledge did coincide with something being asked, I found myself prodding away at a button which stubbornly refused to light up the display at the front of my desk.

The official reason for this was that I was too slow, and some other candidate had beaten me to it.
 
Clearly there is a major conspiracy going on here, but I am going to rise above this disgraceful fact and instead present my ideal set of Olympic quiz questions.

They are ideal for two reasons. Firstly, they are, I believe, irresistible. And secondly, I know about them.

If only they’d asked me questions on these…

In AD67, which Roman Emperor travelled to the Ancient Games in Greece and came away with six golds, including one for a chariot race in which he had taken part while under the influence of Bacchus, and forbidden any others to compete?

Yes, it was Emperor Nero. And yes, he did also manage to win the two events he had "suggested" should be included in that year’s Games, lyre-playing and tragedy.

Which Hungarian clan made fencing a family affair at the Olympics between 1912 and 1980?

It was, of course, the Gerevich family. Aladar Gerevich won a record seven golds, one silver and two bronzes between 1932 and 1960. His wife, Erna Bogen, won a bronze in 1932. Her father, Albert Bogen, won a silver in 1912.

Disappointingly, Aladar and Erna’s son, Pal, showed no sign of any athletic ability whatsoever. Actually that’s not true. He won Olympic fencing bronze medals in 1972 and 1980.

Which Canadian snowboarder won the first ever Winter Olympic gold in his event at the Nagano Games of 1998, but then saw the gold medal moving away from him when a test showed up traces of marijuana in his system? And what was his immediate defence?

That would be Ross Rebagliati (pictured) , whose gold medal was returned to him when it transpired that, due to an apparent failure of communication between the Olympic authorities and the international body that dealt with snowboarding, marijuana was not a banned substance at the time of the Games - a loophole that was swiftly closed.

Rebagliati claimed in mitigation that his positive test had occurred as a result of his attending a farewell party in his native Canadian resort of Whistler (where marijuana is reputed to be stronger than anywhere else in the world) at which many of his friends were taking advantage of the local resource. Specifically, Rebagliati’s defence was the reverse of Bill Clinton’s - he inhaled, but he didn’t smoke.

Who was disqualified in 1904 for cheating in the marathon?

That was Fred Lorz, who was first man back in the stadium looking suspiciously fresh. It transpired he had received a lift in a car after suffering cramp, and when the car had broken down near the stadium he had resumed running. He claimed it was a joke. Lorz was banned for a year. History doesn’t record whether this was for cheating, or for his shockingly bad excuse…

When Li Ho Jun of the People’s Republic of Korea won the small-bore prone gold medal in the shooting at the 1972 Olympics, with a score of 599 out of a possible 600 points, what was his response when asked how he had concentrated so well?

His answer was that he pretended he was "aiming at a capitalist".

Now I accept that the odds of these five questions cropping up in an Olympics quiz are long. But just in case they do - consider yourselves fortunate for this rehearsal.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

Carl Froch is probably the most celebrated sports personality to come out of Nottingham since Torvill and Dean - although the celebrations have been largely domestic.

The WBC super-middleweight champion himself admits he is hardly a household name north or south of the Trent, understated and relatively unsung despite being unbeaten over 26 fights with a 76 per cent ko record and a catchy nom-de-guerre, "The Cobra".

Until now, 32-year-old Froch has been a product of the provinces, hailed as a hero in his home town though his name has never been one that springs readily to lips of anyone but the genuine cognoscenti  of the thick ear trade elsewhere.
 
The US promoter Lou di Bella famously asked last year: "Who the froch is Froch?" He quickly found out when The Cobra sensationally crushed his man Jermaine Taylor to retain his title in boxing's Super Six series which is designed to unite the various titles in the division.    

Froch is some way from your archetypal pug. Tall, ruggedly handsome and articulate, he is university educated with sports science degree from Loughborough after studying business and finance at college. A good, clinical fighter who can box and bang, which is why he is such a good role model for Britain’s elite amateur boxing squad with whom he has been training at their English Institute of Sport HQ in Sheffield  in preparation for his next Super Sixs showdown  with, Mikkel Kessler in Herning, Denmark on  Saturday week (April 24).

Froch has been a regular visitor to Sheffield since his trainer, Rob McCracken, took over as the GB Performance Director for the amateur squad and head coach. I met him there last week when he was working with McCracken and sparring with some of the squad - something that would have given The Blazers apoplexy in the days. not so long ago, when amateurs weren’t even allowed in the same room as pros, let alone the same ring.

Froch told me: "It's been like a natural progression for me to come here because of Rob's new job and everyone seems happy about it and because it helps me and I hope it helps the boys.

"The facilities are fantastic and there are some good young boxers I can spar with, especially the bigger lads like Frank Buglioni and Steve Simmons. The talent and enthusiasm is amazing - they are a proper sound bunch of lads. They are eager to get to the Olympics and they are looking to me as a world champion to inspire them. They are happy to pick my brains and I am happy to pick theirs.

"It’s also handy to have a running track at the Institute and Rob is here so it is perfect for me to get in shape for this fight. 

"It’s quite a lot different from my own amateur days - then we were at Crystal Palace which was a bit dilapidated but we had a ring and a few bags which you felt was all you needed.  Here they’ve got everything on tap- state-of-the-art equipment, steam room, ice bath, coaches, physios. a psychologist and instant replay videos all over the place.

"We never had anything like that when I was an amateur but  boxing is being funded properly now and this will give the lads the best possible chance for 2012. And the great thing for them about Rob is that he’s boxed both as an amateur and professional."

Froch (pictured) is something of a late bloomer, having turned pro only eight years ago after an outstanding amateur career which culminated in him winning a bronze medal in the 2001 World Championships.

So he is able to tell those in the squad who may be thinking of a pro career after the Olympics that having as decent grounding in vest and headguards is essential.

"Had I not had a good amateur pedigree who knows whether I would be where I am now.

"I think having a long amateur career [he boxed over 40 times for England] taught me how to handle pressure and the roller-coaster of emotions  boxing brings. It builds your character. You become accustomed to what a ruthless world it is out there. You learn to believe in yourself."

Having seen the splendid Sheffield set-up I can vouch for Froch’s view that it is among the finest in world boxing - amateur or pro. Much of the credit for this must go to British Amateur Boxing Association chairman Derek Mapp, the former Sport England chief who will admit he knew little about boxing until he became an instant fan of the sport after being introduced too it by ABA chief executive Paul King and myself a couple of years ago.

A multi-millionaire who made his money largely from a chain of pubs and nurseries, he says: “I am a businessman and as such I apply business principles to my role. I leave the boxing side to Rob."

Bringing in McCracken, after the controversial axing of Terry Edwards and the brief sojourn of Kevin Hickey, has so far proved a master-stroke by Mapp. The proof of the pudding is in the punching and there have been some, excellent results in recent international tournaments: Ten medals, including four gold, in the Commonwealth Federation Championships in Delhi (achieved without several of GB’s leading boxers), and four (two golds, a silver and a bronze) in the highly competitive Prime Ministry tournament in Ankara, Turkey, last week.

The golds were won by flyweight Khalid Yafai, one of the two remaining members of the Beijing team, and middleweight Savannah Marshall, aka The Silent Assassin, the shy, unbeaten Hartlepool teenager who is my tip to be one of he stars when women’s boxing makes its Olympic debut in London.

This was the first time GB had sent a mixed team to an overseas tournament – and mixing it seems to be a McCracken philosophy - in every sense. For not only has he  brought in pro champ Froch to work with the amateurs but he also plans to have the male and female squads sparring with each other in the run-up to 2012.

Meantime you can be sure that Froch’s new fans among the  appreciate amateurs will be rooting for him as he tackles Denmark’s Kessler, a former double world champion who gave Froch’s predecessor Joe Calzaghe such a hard fight. Carl Who? He may be to many, but The Cobra has certainly made a name for himself in Sheffield.   

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire. Froch v Kessler can be seen on Primetime TV (Sky customers call 0871 200 444 or go to www.primetimelive.co.uk)

On Saturday I had my first competition of 2010 at the beautiful new track at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, USA. This was also the official beginning of my quest for the 2012 Olympics when I will be 50. 

I have competed in almost 700 competitions to date in my 38-year competitive career but this meet felt very different, very surreal.

An hour before the competition started I went out on to the field, as I always do to prepare for battle. As I walked through the infield  covered with athletes bodies I got the weird sense that everybody was looking at me. Everyone was smiling. Hmm....how odd? 

As I stretched and did some running drills to warm up I noticed athletes and coaches looking over at me pointing, watching, seemingly my every move? Strange, very strange.

For the first time in my life I actually felt out of place on an athletics track, like I shouldn't be there. I looked around me at all the young athletes and became very aware of my advanced age. The next oldest athlete was 22-year-old Chris Hill, America's number one thrower in 2009. I was 25-years older then him - a quarter of a century - and almost 30 years older than some of the others.

I then looked around at the coaches and realised I was older than most of them too. Fortunately, it was when I looked at the officials I found a little comfort, finally there were some people out there close to my age, even a little older.

From that point on my focus came back to throwing and the competition. I had a mission to accomplish. Nothing could distract me now.

Despite the 18 other competitors there that day, they were not my rivals. I was the only competition. It was me against myself, against my aging body. I had to put aside concerns of injury, block out pain and discomfort and thoughts of embarrassing myself in front of all these people.  

Ninety minutes later, at the conclusion of the meet depsite coming second, I had smashed 12 UK national age records: six UK javelin age records for a 47-year-old - the furthest by 10 metres  And six UK age group records (45-49) with the best throw of 69.54m improving on the previous mark by over six metres. My performance also put me on top of the 2010 world veterans rankings.
 
After the competition I signed some autographs and posed for a few photographs with my fellow javelin throwers. They all had this look of disbelief. They could not understand or explain my presence, my unusual technique or my performance. One athlete seemingly dazed told me, "Don't take this the wrong way Mr Bradstock, but I have never been so humiliated in all my life? You're older than my Dad."  I took that as a compliment.

I walked out the stadium and met my wife who had been watching from the stands. Now she had a weird smile on her face. She gave me a hug and explained her bemusement. During the competition her husband - that would be me - had apparently been a great source of entertainment on the bleachers. 

Each time I got on the run-up the people in the stands commented, "Look Grandpa is going to throw again". The people sitting next to my wife referred to me as the Star Wars character "Yoda".  My age was an on going topic of conversation. Apparently the estimates ranged from early 70's to mid 50's - Yikes. I know I am old but that old?

As we walked back to the car I found myself beginning to smile. It had been a good day and a new experience for me, one more competition under my belt, one step closer to 2012. I was healthy, injury free and ready for my next competition.     

Read previous Roald Bradstock blogs here.

Roald Bradstock represented Britain in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and in 1996 was an alternate for United States Olympic team. Bradstock competed in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 United States Olympic Trials. He has now switched his allegiance back to Britain and hopes to compete in the trials for London 2012. In addition to being an Olympic athlete, Bradstock is also an Olympic artist dubbed "The Olympic Picasso"

Playing volleyball on Copacabana Beach may sound like a fantasy occupation but for the GB men and women’s beach volleyball teams it represents the next serious step in their bid for medals at the London Olympics.

They flew to Brazil this week to take part in the inaugural FIVB World Tour event of the season in Brasilia, the first of 16 events in 13 countries which will demonstrate the progress of the GB teams towards their ultimate ambition: success in London.

A week-long training and practice stint on the beaches of Rio will be followed by the competition proper next week, and the women’s team of Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin will be hoping to approach the form that led them to their first top ten finish in Kristiansand, Norway, last season.

The men’s team, Gregg Weaver and Robin Miedzybrodzki, are cementing a partnership that came together for the last event of the season 2009 when they did well to qualify and finish 17th.

"It’s an exciting opportunity to see how we compare with the rest of the world at this early stage," said Matt Grinlaubs, the GB coach and former Australian Olympic beach volleyball competitor. "We’d obviously like to get in the groove and win some matches. No matter how hard you train during the winter, there is nothing to replicate competitive international matches."

Both teams will have to come through qualifying to reach the main draw, where they may face any of the seeded teams including the dominant United States or Brazilian teams.

The professionalism of GB beach volleyball has grown significantly since the sport was introduced into the Olympics in 1996 and a full preparation programme was set up at Bath University three years ago, specifically targeting London 2012. Both Dampney and Mullin were recruited from the indoor game.



Dampney (pictured left) is a law graduate who grew up on a farm on Dorset, now - among other things - a wedding venue. She may be one of the few active British Olympians who can claim to own a set of pet peacocks. Mullin (pictured right) is a former Scottish indoor volleyball international, whose father played gaelic football for Donegal and whose ambition is: "To be in the top ten teams in the world and medal at the Olympics."

Weaver, originally from Poole,  was lured back to Britain to join the squad, having spent three years in California where he met his wife, Leanne, currently teaching maths at a secondary school in Wootton Basset. His partner from Edinburgh, Miedzybrodzki, was on-course for a career in golf (playing off a handicap of four as a teenager) when he was diverted into volleyball at school.

By the time the sand goes down in the Horseguard’s Parade as the venue for the London 2012 beach bolleyball competition, both squads are intent on a higher profile for the sport that goes beyond bikinis and encouraging results amongst top-class world competition.

The winter training schedule has been characterised by an immensely-busy travel schedule due to a lack of an indoor training facility anywhere in the country. A usable venue, located in a Bristol warehouse, was closed down last October and, as yet, no new premises have been identified. Both teams have therefore been constantly on the move to train round Europe, from Tenerife (five times in the case of the women) to Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Athens and Toulouse.

"It does takes its toll," said Miedzybrodzki. "If we could train at home, we could continue with the support of our strength and conditioning coach, and our physio/masseur at Bath University,  which would mean getting more out of training and keeping on top of injuries. It would be much more productive and we would be able to invite teams over to train with us. At the moment we’re on the road for most of the year."

Award-winning sports columnist, feature writer and chief interviewer at the Daily Telegraph for 12 years, Sue Mott is now much in demand in her new freelance capacity. A major contributor to television and radio - all terrestrial channels, Sky, ESPN and Radio 5Live - she has covered all the major sporting events including World Cups, Olympics, Wimbledon, Commonwealth Games, Athletic World Championships, FA Cup Finals and several Test series.

For updates and details www.britishvolleyball.org
Media contact www.davidwelchmanagement.com

Heather Fell, Britain’s modern pentathlon silver medallist from the 2008 Olympics, is proud to come from Devon - and proud to promote anything else that comes from that county. Which explains why she has recently been supporting the launch of a new beer from her local Dartmoor Breweries, entitled Legend.

This 27-year-old from Princeton, near Tavistock, is already something of a local legend following her exploits in Beijing.

But as she turns her attention to this weekend’s World Cup event at Medway Park - she was eighth in her semi-final today to reach Sunday’s final - she is patently a less-than-happy bunny. And Devon is partly to blame.

Nobody could have accused Fell of talking up her chances when she attended a press call earlier this week to help publicise a competition that marks the official opening of the £11 million Medway Park centre, and which is being billed as the first global sporting event to be held in Medway.

She made it clear at the official conference that she had not been able to train effectively since finishing fifth in the first of this season’s World Cup events in Mexico last month, a state of affairs that had been exacerbated by a mild virus.

And she looked fed up.

As Medway Park staff busied themselves putting up banners and adding the final touches to a stadium that, six months ago, was scarcely more than a building site, Fell stood on the track with her GB hoodie pulled up over her head and told me that, if she had the choice, she wouldn’t be competing this weekend.

Fell has always been the most independent of Britain’s modern pentathletes. Having won the world junior title in 2003 and taken her place at the sport’s national training base in Bath two years later, a serious problem with shin splints effectively put her out of the running for 16 months, and she was reluctantly released by the man who is still the British team’s Performance Director, Jan Bartu.

Fell’s reaction to these circumstances defined her as an athlete. She went home to Princeton, got a part-time job as a barmaid in her local pub, The Plume of Feathers, and dedicated herself to the task of getting back to fitness on her home turf.

The task was completed, and with a glorious Olympic result.

Last season was less spectacular, although she helped earn Britain team silver at the World Championships held at Crystal Palace.

At this early stage of the 2010 season, however, Fell maintains she is less than confident . "I’m struggling a little at the moment," she confessed, adding that she has found it tricky adjusting to spending the bulk of her training time back at the World Class Performance centre in Bath, where she is under the guidance of the women’s head coach, Istvan Nemeth, rather than in Devon with her long-time coach Robin Brew.

"I’ve not got the best relationship with my coach at the moment," she said. "Maybe the best way of putting it is that I’m really struggling with the coaching set-up.

"I’m now training more at Bath, and things need to step up, and I’m ready to step it up. But something is missing and it’s quite hard to put my finger on it.

"I had a really good relationship with my coach at home, who was my swimming coach  but also understood my running and understood me and how I worked and what I needed, even though he wasn’t an overall pentathlon coach.

"And I’m kind of missing that guidance at the moment. I feel a bit lost with my training because I don’t have someone that I can go to speak to. At the moment I don’t feel 100 per cent but there’s no one there telling me, ‘Oh, you should train’, or ‘You shouldn’t train’.

"I still try to spend as much time as I can in Devon but they are not keen for me to do that. I’ve been in Bath more often than at home recently. But it’s now starting to show because my times should be getting better and they are not.

"It’s early to tell competition-wise, but I feel I haven’t got the base behind me I need to get me through the season and I’m hoping i will have time to get that base for later in the season.

"It’s not impossible to ring Robin, but I feel that coaches are incredibly busy all the time and you kind of feel you can’t just take, you’ve got to give a bit, and he’s not getting anything back. It’s quite a hard position only to ring him when I’m in trouble.

"I still want to give it a go up in Bath because in theory its great facility and set-up. But having a single programme for a group of people who are all very different... doesn’t always work."

What is adding to the pressure Fell is clearly feeling at the moment is the abundance of talent Britain is continuing to enjoy in an event which has yielded a gold, a silver and two bronze medals since it was introduced to the Olympics in 2000.

The British women’s team currently has at least seven world class performers to call upon. And although both the men’s and women’s teams were allowed to field up to 12 competitors for this weekend’s World Cup, as host - with the women getting eight competitors through to the final - the tariff falls to four for other World Cup events or the world championships.

As for the Olympics - well, there you get just two entries. Even if you are the host nation.

"We have the biggest problem because we are such a strong nation," Fell says. "For the Hungarians it’s just the same three women. The French have just one top girl so she goes to everything. The Germans have three girls who come to everything, same with the Poles. The Russians - the top two stay the same, the bottom ones change.

"For most of the countries it’s the same athletes at every World Cup, whereas when we went to Mexico for this season’s opening World Cup people were coming up to us and saying: ‘Where’s Mhairi [Spence]? Where’s Katy?’  and it was ‘Oh no. They’re coming to the next one.’ ‘Oh. And why are you not doing that one?’ ‘Because there’s too many of us.’

"We have to fight for it. It’s brilliant from the coaching perspective, and it’s great for British pentathlon as well."

The word “but” is not spoken; only inferred...

Fell is right, of course. Having such a wealth of talent can only be good for Britain’s prospects.

( Medal prospects?  Tick. Continued UK Lottery funding? Tick.)

But as London 2012 looms ever closer, you feel there is some urgent fine tuning required for Britain to get the best out of a young woman who has already indicated that she has the attitude and talent of a champion.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

It was in November 2008 that the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) decided to radically alter their sport by combining two of the five events - the running and the shooting disciplines.

They did this with the intention of creating more excitement in a sport that has had its status as an Olympic event called into question in recent Games due to its seeming lack of popularity outside of Eastern Europe.

Despite criticism of such a dramatic change - which many believe has too radically altered the historic sport - it is undeniable that the restructuring of modern pentathlon has resulted in a more unpredictable and therefore more exciting climax to an event that was a favorite of the founder of the Modern Olympic Games: Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

The new run/shoot format basically involves athletes taking part of three bouts of pistol shooting followed by a 1000 metre run. In each of the three rounds of firing, athletes must hit the target five times. They must reload their gun after each shot and once they have hit all five targets, they may then resume running. If they don’t hit all five, they must wait until 70 seconds pass them by before they are allowed to continue running again.

This may not seem like a huge amount of time but when some of the better shooters can hit all five targets in just 25 seconds, 70 seconds can feel like a lifetime and can mean the difference between a gold medal and tenth place.

The key then, is to have a steady hand under pressure.

With my rather naïve view that shooting a few targets and running around a track couldn’t be that difficult, I confidently drove down to Medway Park in Gillingham, the picturesque venue that is set to host the Modern Pentathlon World Cup over the next four days. 

I arrived at the Medway Park having signed up for the journalist’s opportunity to participate in the run/shoot event following a press conference with modern pentathlon Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell, Olympian Nick Woodbridge and the precocious 19-year-old Freyja Prentice who has finished in the top-10 in all three of her World Cups to date.

To my delight, I bump into my esteemed insidethegames colleague Mike Rowbottom during the press conference who agreed, rather reluctantly, to join me in the journalist’s run/shoot event.

We marched out to the impressive athletics track which featured the temporary shooting range set to be occupied by the world’s best pentathletes.

There didn’t appear to be much of a structure in place for us so rather than run around the 400 metre athletics track, every single journalist, including Mike and myself, headed straight for the shooting range.

Once there, we were supplied with a magnificent silver pistol by the delightful pentathlon shooting staff and instructed on how to aim at the centre of the target.

After a few wayward shots that appeared to be more of a danger to the pedestrians of Gillingham than the target, I started to find my range and began to edge towards the bull’s-eye.

In the station next to me, I found none other than Mr Rowbottom, who was looking unusually focused. Mike was holding a pose that would have made James Bond proud and I grudgingly admit that it appeared to have a positive effect on his shooting.



Mike was consistently hitting the target and, after imitating his one-eye-open/one-eye-closed technique, I found myself almost as consistent as my colleague. 

In fact, after five minutes or so of shooting, it was becoming slightly too easy as the novelty of firing a shiny silver gun began to wear off.

“This isn’t too difficult” I said to Mike who was so immersed in concentration that I doubt he heard me. After a while, I put down my pistol and a minute or ten later, so did Mike.

“Do you fancy doing one lap of the track to see if it is harder to shoot when you are out of breath?" I asked Mike.

“Yeah okay” he replied to my complete surprise.

Mike took off his shoes while I took off my coat and we set off on our one lap together.

I was expecting my colleague to be a relatively slow runner but to my astonishment, Mike flew off the start line like Usain Bolt at an Olympic Games. Not to be outdone, I stepped it up a gear to draw back level.

We continued round the top bend side by side until Mike put in a burst of speed towards the end of the race to pull ahead. As I lined up my own sprint finish, Mike - inadvertently he claimed - diverted straight into my path to block my inevitable overtake. Though the picture suggests Mike was the victor of our one lap race, I feel inclined to say that he is a far better journalist than he is fair-competitor.

Anyway, enough of Mike’s devious tactics.

The two of us sprinted across to our shooting stations and picked up our pistols once more.

I was not expecting a 400m run to take very much out of me but as I looked up at the target and raised my pistol to aim, I began to wonder why everything was swaying from side to side.

I quickly realised that the run had thrown my senses completely off-balance and though I tried to hit the centre of the target; my heavy breathing made such a feat an impossibility.

My arm inexplicably felt extremely heavy and I was finding it difficult to regain the balance and posture I had achieved before I embarked on the one-lap run.

To my delight, I saw out of the corner of my eye that Mike had so exhausted himself on our run that he appeared too uncoordinated even to load his pistol.

I tried to steady myself again when I suddenly remembered a conversation I had had with Freyja Prentice just after the press conference.

I had asked her for her expert advice on the run/shoot format and she had replied: "Slow you’re breathing down and when you aim you pistol, hold your breath for a second so you’re hand is steady while you aim."

Feeling confident, I held my breath and aimed.  Needless to say, I completely missed the target and almost passed out through oxygen deprivation. After well over 70 seconds had passed and I had not hit the target once, I decided to call it a day and so did Mike.

I left Medway Park wondering how anyone can hit five consecutive targets three times in a row after running three sets of 1000m. If I was a pentathlete, I know I would certainly be better at the original format where the two events were separate. However, I had to admit that the run/shoot event is certainly a challenge and after today, I believe that anyone who can master the discipline certainly deserves their reward.

The run/shoot event may have come in for criticism and it may not be entirely in keeping with the history of modern pentathlon but no one can deny how exciting it is. And as Mike, I and anyone who has tried the event would readily confess; it’s bloody hard!

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames and insideworldparasport 

Yesterday may have been Major League Baseball’s official Opening Day, but here in Colorado Springs, one could also say it was Opening Day for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Scott Blackmun Team.

And if the announcements by the USOC are any indication of what is to come from Blackmun and his batting order, they had better move the outfield walls a lot farther back.

The Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, along with the Paralympics, are just complete, and now you see the first real look at the Blackmun era and rock solid evidence of his strong message to the community at a March 25 reception that the organisation was committed to being a better neighbour and guest of our city than at any time in the 32 years since Olympic House was relocated from New York City to the shadow of Pikes Peak.

You may recall that the USOC made an important pre-Vancouver announcement that it was bringing its largest and most important annual gathering, the US Olympic Assembly, to Colorado Springs for the first time this September, and later, that it was going to spiff up and raise the profile of this big session of the Olympic family, sponsors, athletes, National Governing Bodies, International  VIPs, media and more. No more Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, Orlando, or (oh,please!), La Jolla. It’s coming home where it belongs.

But yesterday in our burg, the USOC hit a pair of massive home runs that sent a compelling, honest and clear message to the citizens and the business community. Blackmun opened the day by revealing that he was closing the Irvine, California, office of the USOC’s international relations division, a creation of former chairman Peter Ueberroth, and bringing it back to Colorado Springs and the about-to-open new downtown offices.

This is a huge message as well to the International Olympic Committee, which, as I write, lists the USOC’s official address on its website as 19600 Fairchild Road, Suite 270, Irvine, CA 92612, not One Olympic Plaza in Colorado Springs, and has for the last five years.

Hello, Lausanne! 

The USOC opened Olympic House in Colorado Springs on August 1, 1978, and it never left. Makes me wonder what Juan Antonio Samaranch and Dr. Jacques Rogge thought they were doing when they visited us in Colorado Springs during my tenure as chief spokesman from 1978-2003.

But the grand slam came yesterday afternoon at the Hillside Community Center when Blackmun stood next to the Mayor to announce that the USOC and Colorado Springs-based National Governing Bodies (NGBs) USA Archery, USA Basketball, USA Hockey, USA Judo, USA Swimming, USA Table Tennis, USA Triathlon and US Figure Skating were coming forth with a $250,000 (£163,000) grant to benefit the City’s youth sports and recreation programmes over two years.

This simple and caring message will mean much to kids who want to take part in positive 2010-2011 sport programmes in boxing, basketball, swimming, Paralympic sport, in-line hockey, judo and vital summer camps at three community centers, each in danger of extinction because of the city’s widely-publicised budget woes.

"This announcement will fill a gap that exists and allow young people to participate in programming that enhances their childhood and makes our community stronger," said Blackmun. "The USOC and our affiliated NGBs have a special obligation to the people of Colorado Springs, and this grant is just a step along the way in demonstrating our long-term commitment to this great city."

Yesterday afternoon in our city, the USOC met the issue of its commitment to its hometown head on, as well as telling our long supportive city and its hard-working residents that its appreciates the three decades of hospitality, support, love and pride. Yes, there’s still work to be done, more of the same stuff that came out today, and it will take time to rebuild trust and confidence.

What began here in that summer of 1978 took a big step forward today, one that looks like just the first game of a long and rewarding season.

Mike Moran was the chief communications officer of the USOC for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003. In 2002 he was awarded with the USOC's highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award. He worked on New York's unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and is now director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.

My phone has been ringing incessantly ever since it became public knowledge that my father's life story will be made into a Bollywood movie.

I have been asked this question more than a few times, and I have no hesitation in saying it again: I think my father is one of the greatest sportspersons in the history of Indian sports.

As for comparisons with me, I think I will have to win a Major or two to even stand on the same platform as him. What he managed to achieve despite the challenges, and the recognition he gets from everyone - including today's youngsters who were born 20 years after his major wins - is just amazing.

My father was one of the millions of migrants from Pakistan, who lost everything, including his family, during the painful days of Partition. To cut a long story short, what still gives me goosebumps is the way he thought. Sleeping under a street light, with tattered clothes on his body and without a single decent meal for months, Milkha Singh was struck with a thought - he wanted to be a world champion.

Imagine, a youngster who was so hungry he was beyond care, thinking of being a world champion. To me, it is that kind of thinking which made him the man he is.

We have regularly received requests from Bollywood producers and scriptwriters over the years, but dad was never interested. And then, I got a call from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Now I have been a huge fan of Rang de Basanti, a brilliant film that he made on the challenges faced by Indian youth in today's time and age.

And when I met him, and Prasoon Joshi, a legendary name in Indian advertising who is now also a very successful scriptwriter and lyricist, I was convinced they are the best people to take dad's real story and transform it to its ‘reel' version.

Then I, along with my mother, sisters and wife Kudrat, had to sit with dad and convince him. He agreed only because we told him how important it is for today's generation to know a story like his.

From what I have been given to understand, Rakeysh is hoping to complete the final draft of the screenplay and start shooting soon. He will then complete the casting and is keen to release the movie just before the 2012 Olympics Games.

The film has been titled Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, or Run Milkha Run, which is almost like the famous line from Forrest Gump. I just hope the film is as inspiring as the one starring Tom Hanks.

Jeev Milkha Singh, the son of Milkha Singh, is the first Indian golfer to become a member of the European Tour and has 19 professional wins to his credit. He won the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2006 and 2008. This article originally appeared in the Gulf Times.

First, a couple of extra things you might not have realised about the structure that was announced this week as the iconic centrepiece of the Olympic Park legacy.

Although the ArcelorMittal Orbital tower will not be as tall as the Eiffel tower - barely a third of its height, in fact - the information sheet accompanying the design’s launch offers an ingenious alternative reading.

Apparently, if you were to flatten out all the new Tower of London’s convoluted steel loops - and more than one observer has sounded ready to do this in the space of the last few days - then yes, it would be taller than the Eiffel tower. It would laugh at the Eiffel tower, in fact.

Should this distortion to Anish Kapoor’s latest inspiration take place, with its 1,400 tonnes of steel being stretched out like a long steel rope, we are told it would be about 560 metres long.

(About? They’ve been designing this thing for months - can’t they even give us an exact figure on its stretched length?)

And consider this: if that steel were further reduced until it resembled tinfoil, then it would comfortably wrap the biggest chicken the world has ever seen. Or turkey, depending on how history judges.

But let’s be serious for a moment.

OK. Let’s continue.

In introducing Anish Kapoor’s new design to a conference room stuffed with television, radio and written media, London’s Mayor Boris Johnson acknowledged that its unusual, some might say challenging, some have said catastrophic aspect might well inspire other names than the title which acknowledges the steel magnate whose £16 million input gave the whole project legs. Sorry, lattice.

"Some may choose to think of it as a Colossus of Stratford," Johnson said, his eye roving over the assembled throng, as is his wont, like that of an old-time music-hall artist.

"Some eyes may detect a giant treble clef, a helter-skelter, a supersized mutant trombone. Some may even see the world's biggest ever representation of a shisha pipe and call it the Hubble Bubble. But I know it is the ArcelorMittal Orbit and it represents the dynamism of a city coming out of recession, the embodiment of the cross-fertilisation of cultures and styles that makes London the world capital of arts and culture."

So there’s the theory. While the Skylon, the cigar-like structure suspended on the South Bank to mark the Festival of Britain in 1951, was toppled the following year on the orders of Winston Churchill and rumoured to have been turned into ashtrays, this marker is going to be a slow burner.

(Although these two edifices appear to have something in common. Kapoor insists that his latest venture "looks like something that would not want to stand up."  Back in the post-war austerity of 1951, the joke was that, like the British economy, the Skylon "had no visible means of support.")

Kapoor maintains that he is "not afraid" of the images that his creation may suggest to the viewing public.

Reaction certainly seems to have ranged from the incredulous to the outraged. The deep-red, winding construction has been compared by some to bloody entrails. Personally I was put in mind of ET in chains.

But then negative reaction to such major construction initiatives is par for the course - a badge of honour, even.

Originally, Gustave Eiffel wanted to build his tower in Barcelona to mark the Universal Exposition of 1888. But the inhabitants of Barcelona’s city hall thought it would be a strange and incongruous monstrosity.

So Eiffel transferred his project to home ground - where, when it was constructed as a centrepiece for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, it was widely denounced as an eyesore.

One letter published in a French newspaper deplored the prospect of looking out over Paris and seeing "stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious column built up of riveted iron plates."

The signatories included writers Alexandre Dumas and Guy de Maupassant, although the latter was later spotted dining regularly at the odious column’s highly reputed restaurant. Asked why he was there, considering his objections to the tower, he replied that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see it.

So the ET tower - just my name, probably won’t catch on - is destined to have some difficult PR days before it takes its place in the bosom of the British people.

I think, however, I may have spotted something in the launch details which will ensure its continuing, indeed, growing success as a London icon.

Although the official literature described it as 115 metres high, by the end of the press conference at City Hall, Johnson insisted it was 118 metres high.

This tower, then, is growing at the rate of three metres a day.

Which means that, by the time the Games are declared over on August 12, 2012, on my calculation, the erection in the park will be 2,662 metres high, making it comfortably twice the size of the world’s current tallest building, the 828 metres-high Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai.

And by the turn of the century, the Olympic Park tower will be so tall that it will make the mythical Beanstalk that Jack climbed, believed to have been destroyed by an earthquake in 371 BC, look no more than a puny weed in comparison.

Put it this way. If you stretched London buses end-to-end in an effort to match it, you would run out of buses - even if you managed to get some of the old, bendy stock which Boris Johnson’s predecessor as Mayor so waywardly installed on the streets of the capital…

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

The view that "competition teaches life skills" is often used by people explaining why there should be winners and losers in sport.

I can only speak from my own experiences whilst growing up, having children and what I’ve seen during the many school visits I have been on.

Children are naturally competitive, whether that be when trying to tie their shoelaces before their brother or sister or being the first one to guess the answer to "I spy with my little eye" whilst sat in the back of the car on the way home from school.

For me, sport provides the best environment for children to learn what competition is, how it can be related to everyday life and the skills it can give them which they will use, often without even realising, when they get older.

Not wanting to fall behind in lessons, working on a group science project, being respectful to others in class or reacting with grace when they’ve sailed through an exam while their best friend’s flunked it - these real life situations in school require self-discipline, teamwork, fair play and respect, which are all skills sport can offer.   

This is of course not even considering the health benefits of sport and physical activity.

When packaged effectively and appropriately, I believe competitive sport can enhance the lives of every young person.

Challenging a child to beat his or her own PB is as important as encouraging a school team to overcome their opponents.     

There is still the problem that too often the same children represent their school football, rugby, hockey or netball teams.

However, competitive sport is being put back at the heart of schools which means there is an ever increasing number of opportunities for young people to enjoy and benefit from competition regardless of their age or ability.

For those young people who demonstrate talent good enough for them to consider a career in sport and they have a hunger which drives them to compete and be the best, there are more opportunities for them outside of school.

This is shown in the improvements being made to how young people can progress from school sport, to county, to regional and national competition through the work involving the national governing bodies.

Last year, over 2.7 million pupils aged five to 16 regularly took part in competition between schools.

The Sainsbury’s UK School Games, an event which I’ve been to a few times since my retirement, are a really important stepping stone for many talented young athletes looking to make it in elite sport.



The Games, which this year take place in the North East of England from September 2-5, will see around 1,600 school-age athletes  experiencing an environment similar to that of the Olympics, Paralympics or Commonwealth Games - it’s certainly something I wish had been around when I was young.

It’s a multi-sport event with an Opening and Closing Ceremony and Athletes’ Village which many, if not all of them, will not have tasted before.

I’ve no doubt there will be some competitors who will be overawed and let the nerves get to them whilst others will simply thrive on the pressure and atmosphere and achieve PBs or win medals which they didn’t think possible before the Games.

The key point is however they perform or whatever they achieve, it’s an experience they will never forget and an invaluable lesson as they embark on their sporting careers.

Going to a major championship, mixing with other athletes, interacting with a crowd or dealing with the media can affect different athletes in different ways.

Being able to handle all these external pressures whilst still performing when it matters most is what separates medallists from also-rans.

The Sainsbury’s UK School Games are a fantastic opportunity for these youngsters to learn their trade so that they are not overawed when they earn senior selection and compete on the biggest stages in sport.

We all know the knock-on effect of success achieved by our country’s athletes in international sport.

The euphoria seen back home when Great Britain’s athletes achieved their incredible success at the 2008 Beijing Olympics followed by our inspirational Paralympians a few weeks later was huge.

Should England win the World Cup in South Africa this summer then I think the country will witness a feel-good factor of unrivalled proportions.

Competitive sport has the ability to inspire those watching as much as those playing, which is why the opportunities presented by London 2012 are so exciting.

There’s no doubt there will be a surge in the numbers of young people wanting to take up the Olympic and Paralympic sports which they will have just watched on TV - but more likely the sports in which we’ve been successful.

Children will always want to emulate their heroes, the people they respect, the people who they perceive to be winners in life. This applies to musicians, teachers, doctors, even bankers and brings me back to the point I made about competition teaching children life skills.

By creating an environment in school where all young people can learn, enjoy and achieve through competitive sport, this experience can help them develop socially, break down cultural barriers, assess risk and when to take it, but above all allow them to realise their potential and self-belief. 

Jason Gardener was a member of the Great Britain 4x100 metres relay team who struck gold at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and is a former world indoor 60m champion. He is now a School Sport Ambassador with the Youth Sport Trust.

Vitaliy Klitschko, the giant Ukrainian who holds the World Boxing Council heavyweight title - the most authentic of the game's alphabet soup - says women’s boxing sickens him.

"When I see two women face to face in a boxing ring I feel nausea. The sport is appropriate for men, not for women. Perhaps I am old (Dr Ironfist is 38) or conservative but I consider there are sports much more beautiful for women than boxing."

He is not alone among boxing’s elder statesmen in disapproving strongly of ladies who punch. Sir Henry Cooper pointedly made an excuse and left when a female bout was announced during a mixed international between Great Britain and the USA last year. Amir Khan believes women should stick to tennis, Barry McGuigan is firmly in the anti-camp as is leading promoter Frank Warren ("I wouldn’t allow my daughter to box") while my good friend Colin Hart, The Sun’s doyen of boxing scribes, will have no truck with it either.

Their self-admitted chauvinistic views will get short shrift from the seven feisty females selected as Britain’s Olympic squad, notably Amanda Coulson who is among those in contention for the three places available when women’s boxing makes its Olympic debut in 2012. 

The 27-year-old lightweight from Hartlepool, whom I first met five years ago when she was helping to pioneer the sport here, is something of suffragette of sock. I am delighted to see her in the squad for she has campaigned vigorously for the recognition of the sport when there were many in male-dominated officialdom sneering at its validity in this country and obstructing its progress. She said at the time: "When I am out there in the ring I am not only fighting my opponent, I am fighting the officials, the organisations, and all the old school that don’t agree with women’s boxing."

She gained the backing of the then-national coach Terry Edwards and her fight has been well and truly won despite the detractors like Klitschko and co. The advent of women’s boxing in the Olympics is a real landmark for London and a triumph for those like  Amanda who have fought strenuously for the cause.

Both the Amateur Boxing Association of England and the British Amateur Boxing Association are to be applauded for their ready acceptance of women’s boxing into their programmes and affording it equal status with the men in terms of facilities and coaching at elite level. 

When I first spoke with Amanda (pictured) she was sparring at Crystal Palace in preparation for the European Championships. I hope I am not being too sexist when I say that she is attractive enough to be on the catwalk instead doing a ring walk. Then there were about 70 female boxers in Britain.

Now there are 700, and more than 37,000 women regularly participating in boxing training as a fitness exercise.

Over 250 clubs in England have female members and in 2008/2009 British women won 18 medals in seven international competitions, including three golds and two bronze in the EU Championships in Bulgaria.

The articulate Coulson now shrugs off the reactionaries, saying: "You will always get some people who are negative, saying women shouldn’t box, or it is just handbags at ten paces. But the sport has evolved dramatically and has as much skill and technique as in men’s boxing."

She told us she first got the gumshield between her teeth as a 13-year-old. "I've always been a bit of a tomboy and liked competing in male- dominated sports, but what attracted me to boxing was when I read a report in a local newspaper about two other 13-year-olds who were to be the first females to take part in a bout in England. I thought, 'I wouldn't mind a crack at that', but I didn't really know where to start, so I thumbed through the Yellow Pages looking for a club that would take women. Finally I found one, a local boys' club that was run by the police (Hartlepool Catholic Police Community Club). They welcomed me and that was it. I was hooked.'"

She now works for the police as a communications officer, answering 999 calls, and fits her roadwork and gym training between her shifts. At college she studied sports science and intended going to university, but this plan was abandoned when her father died of a brain tumour.

Coulson, who has been boxing for 14 years, has extensive experience, collecting medals at an array of international tournaments and  representing GB in the 2008 World Championships. She has been in great form since being beaten by her under 60 kilo rival Natasha Jonas in the 2009 ABA Championships.

Hartlepool now seems a hotbed of women’s boxing, producing another squad member in 18-year-old middleweight Savannah Marshall (pictured), who won the European Union title in only her fifth bout and is known as "The Silent Assassin" because she has little to say for herself but is a ferocious finisher in the ring. After winning the European Youth title in December 2008, she moved into senior boxing with devastating results, winning the 2009 ABA title inside 60 seconds before being crowned European Union champion in only her fifth adult contest.

The tall, unbeaten teenager twice defeated American Brittany Inkrote in internationals against the USA in London in November (the one Sir ‘Enry walked out on), winning 16-3 and 19-4.

She is a hot tip for an Olympic medal, together with Britain’s most successful female boxer, flyweight Nicola Adams, 27, from Bradford, Britain’s first world amateur medallist, winning silver in China 16 months ago.

With only three divisions - flyweight, lightweight and middleweight - there will be intense rivalry for an Olympic berth, though Marshall seems virtually guaranteed a slot as she is the only one nominated at middleweight.

Coulson will be challenging for the lightweight spot with Jonas, who has beaten her twice, and Londoner Ruth Marshall. The 31-year-old Navy lieutenant Lucy O’Connor, who like Coulson, has been an ardent campaigner on behalf of women’s boxing, has shed 6kg to be one of the three competing for the flyweight place, together with favourite Adams and Nina Smith, from Essex.

All seven will receive funding and train fortnightly at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield under GB Performance Director Rob McCracken and a highly professional set-up which includes coaches, a nutritionist. a psychologist, a physiotherapist and a video analyst. 

Amanda Coulson, boxing’s Cinderella girl, could hardly have envisaged all this happening when she first began banging the drum for women’s rights (and lefts) in the sport. As the saying goes, you’ve  come a long way, baby.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire, and is a former chairman of the Boxing Writers’ Club.

History may not always repeat itself first as tragedy then as farce, as Karl Marx said, but there are some very curious and interesting similarities in the latest attempt to get West Ham into the Olympic Stadium.

The tragic episode came back in 2006, so is it possible that we have now reached the stage of farce? And in the end could, as one football chairman told me, the stadium become a place where Tower Hamlets play Shoreditch Grammar School with grass growing out of the seats?

Well, let us go back to 2006 when the last serious attempt was made to make West Ham an anchor tenant for the Olympic Stadium. Richard Caborn, the then Sports Minister, was very keen on it so was Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham and so were the owners of West Ham.

Indeed Terry Brown, then chairman, saw the move to the Olympic Stadium as crucial to West Ham competing on anything like equal terms with the likes of Chelsea or Arsenal. It also formed a central plank of his desire to sell the club. And on the field of play the club faced relegation.

Out of that cocktail of possibilities the only event that actually materialised was the sale, although Sheffield United fans will forever claim that relegation would and should have happened had West Ham been prevented from paying Carlos Tevez.

The sale had its own drama with Brown and Co not selling to the Russian-born Israeli that Tevez's manager Kia Joorabchian had introduced but to a then rich Icelander. Nevertheless Brown and co still walked away with something close to a £100 million.

Four years later the club has new owners, is again facing relegation and the move to the stadium is back on the agenda. The difference is Messers David Sullivan and David Gold, now see it as crucial to the club's salvation. It is a reflection of the completely altered economic climate that a post-2012 move to Stratford is not meant to make West Ham the equal of Chelsea or Arsenal, more to ensure the club stays afloat.

Given the mess the Icelandic owners created, Sullivan and Gold can hardly hope to walk away with £100 million but are coping with clearing debts of £100 million.

Any talk of football moving to the Olympic stadium means we renew the tennis match, or to borrow Lord Coe's phrase, replay the cracked record of the future of the running track. Sullivan, soon after he completed the takeover, lobbed over the argument that it had to go which promoted a volley back from Coe, the 2012 chairman, that it had to stay.

And this view was reiterated by Baroness Ford, chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, in her evidence to MPs last month when she insisted that athletics could co-exist with football. Her words are worth noting, "for me premier athletics must be part of the mix because that was part of the bid commitment."



So can all this be resolved? One man who can claim to have an insight into all this is Barry Hearn, the chairman of Leyton Orient. While West Ham moving to the Olympic Stadium has been the main news, ever since the stadium was planned the default position of the Olympic authorities has been that the League One club could be the anchor tenant and help pay the costs of its upkeep.

I have been talking to Hearn and he tells me that, whatever happens, his club will not be moving to the OIympic Stadium after the 2012 Games. Hearn told me: "For three years we have been talking. Leyton Orient would have loved to have been in the Olympic stadium."

At Brisbane Road Leyton Orient can accommodate 9,000 although at present they average round 5,000. Post-2012 with a 25,000 stadium to fill Hearn felt this "would have given us capacity to grow to perhaps 24,000. But I have told the Olympic authorities we will not be moving there."

Hearn's reasons for turning the move down is simple.

"They have built the wrong stadium. In an athletics stadium the slope of the seats is different, they go up at a different angle to a football stadium. When Seb said, 'I have given my word that the running track must remain,' I said spend money on a hydraulics system, like at Stad de France where seats come forward during football to cover the track. But they did not want to spend the money. A running track kills football. In modern football proximity to players generates the atmosphere."

Hearn is absolutely scathing about what has happened. "We will have spent £500 million plus and in two years we will end up with Tower Hamlets playing Shoreditch Grammar School and grass growing out of the seats. Wonderful, well done boys."

And then, in a voice drained of any hint of sarcasm, he added: "They have built a stadium which will be completely useless after the Olympics, totally, a waste of public money, a disgrace.

"Because they don't listen to anybody, they don't think it through and they don't have common sense. Nobody has taken any responsibility."

Since Hearn turned down a move to Stratford he has closely followed the discussions West Ham are having and is convinced that for all the warm noises coming a deal with West Ham is impossible. A few days ago David Sullivan rang Hearn to tell him he was confident the talks would be successful. Hearn said: "David is a friend of mine but he does not understand the infrastructure and the details at the moment. He is a clever man and, when he does, he will realise the deal with West Ham cannot be done."

Time will tell whether Hearn is right but with Hearn’s rejection of the stadium this does mean it severely limits Baroness Ford’s options to get a workable post 2012 deal.

Options that are even more restricted as a result of Boris Johnson taking over from Ken Livingstone as the London Mayor. Back in 2005 when the cost plans for the Olympic Park were being made Ken Livingstone, essentially on the back of envelope calculations, said he would provide £10 million a year for its upkeep.Johnson was aghast when he heard about it. For him the £10 million a year for the park that Ken talked about has never made any sense.

He is much more concerned with grass roots legacy and he has ring-fenced £15 million which with matching funding is part of the £30 million pot he wants to ensure 2012 will provide a real  sporting legacy.

So where will Baroness Ford get the money for her legacy plans and will this not put her under greater pressure to do a football deal with West Ham? But how she can square it with the running track is difficult to see.

All this suggests to me that this stadium story far from being concluded has now entered its most difficult and its most unpredictable phase. If Hearn is proved right this will turn out to be a farce which will produce tears not laughter.

Mihir Bose is one of the world's most astute observers on politics in sport and, particularly, football. He formerly wrote for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph and until recently was the BBC's head sports editor.

www.mihirbose.com
http://twitter.com/mihirbose

In his funny and honest book, The Heart of the Game (Time Warner,£18.99), Jimmy Greaves provides the best analogy I have ever heard for the experience of following football.

He recalls a childhood pal of his who was given a pocket knife by his dad. A couple of years later the handle broke and had to be replaced. Some years after that, the blade broke, and was also replaced.

"Yet," Greaves writes, "my pal still loved the knife, believing it to be the one his dad had given him as a birthday present all those years ago. I mention that story because I believe the way we think and feel about football is similar to the way my pal loved and treasured that knife."

Now I don’t want to get too philosophical here - "When you can snatch the pocket knife from my hand, Grasshopper…" - but I think this image really does point the way to something a bit mysterious.

What is it we follow when we follow a team?

The players change. The kit changes. The manager changes - in some cases, more swiftly than the kit. The ground changes - as all those clubs now located in efficient but anonymous arenas on out-of-town industrial estates will bear witness.

The badge changes - "Coat of arms and a motto? Fans don’t want that old rubbish any more. Get something a bit more user-friendly…" The style of play changes.

The nickname changes. "Come on, you Glaziers!" Heard that recently, have you? It’s all "Come on, you Eagles" down at Selhurst Park nowadays.

"Come on, you Biscuitmen!" Heard that recently? No, because Reading have been The Royals for the last 20-odd years. Although one of their fanzines does celebrate the reference to the old Huntley and Palmers factory in the town by calling itself Hob Nob Anyone?

So what doesn’t change?

I suppose it is no more and no less than the idea that you support a particular team.

In which case, my antipathy to the possibility that the team I have followed since I was 10, West Ham United, will take up new residence in the 2012 Olympic stadium, is irrational.

But as the club and their partners, Newham Council, bid to secure shared use of the stadium with athletics after the Games have finished, I find myself getting mournful about the idea that West Ham will no longer be at Upton Park.

I will never forget the thrill of reaching the top of the stairs in the East Stand and seeing the pitch so far below me when my dad took me to see my first West Ham game - a 1-1 draw with Sunderland on October 25, 1969.

And when the players whose pictures covered my walls - courtesy of Goal, Shoot, Football Weekly and Football Monthly magazines - trotted out onto that green turf and began scattering and scampering about in the warm-up, it felt like all my birthdays and Christmases combined.

Over the last 20 years, as I have covered West Ham matches from the opposing side of the pitch, I have always gazed across and remembered that occasion, trying to picture where we would have been sitting.

And yet, for many West Ham fans back on that October Saturday, the East stand may have been regarded as an unwelcome addition as it had replaced the hugely popular and historically raucous Chicken Run earlier in the year.

The "new" East stand is now the oldest part of the ground since the West Stand was rebuilt in 2001 - complete, it has to be said, with naff, theme-park turrets to chime in with the club’s badge.



Rationally, then, a move to the Olympic Stadium would be a case of "plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose."

If West Ham do end up sharing a stadium with athletics, it would not be for the first time.

Back in 1897, when they still played under the name of Thames Iron Works, the team were ensconced in a new stadium in Plaistow - the Memorial Ground - provided by the Iron Works owner, Arnold Hills.

But football was far from top priority at the new site, as Hills made clear in his address to the Ironworks’s Federated Clubs annual festival.

Adam Ward’s Official History of West Ham United (Hamlyn, £20) details how Hills remarked that he had "secured a large piece of land for an athletic ground", and that "the ground would contain a cycle track equal to any in London (this comment was met with applause) and it would also be used for football, tennis etc".

Should West Ham succeed in shifting to the new site in Stratford, there will be no question about which sport has priority - which means it is vital for UK Athletics to make a strong case now to secure the opportunity of using the stadium to host significant championships in the future.

OK. I think I’m coming round to the possibility.

 It won’t be the same – but it won’t be the end.

That said, there should be no shifting on the subject of the club’s name - which the newly installed vice-chairman Karren Brady suggested recently might be changed to West Ham Olympic.

Albeit that they began life as Thames Ironworks, West Ham United have been West Ham United since the summer of 1900. Let’s at least keep that precious bit of history intact.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

I’m constantly fascinated by the series of carefully orchestrated and rigidly controlled public apologies and ‘coming out” media events created by "crisis management experts" and assorted "spinmeisters" who are hired regularly now by tarnished sports stars like Mark McGwire, Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens.
 
We have reached the point in our media-mad world where the conflict between the athletes and the public has created a whole new culture, based on the unproven notion that Americans will always forgive and offer a second chance to any celebrity who makes a public apology, no matter how vague or disingenuous it appears.

The same touch is being applied now to sports organisations, leagues, teams and even players facing some perceived crisis of public acceptance or understanding. Former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer is the poster boy these days for the band of image and communications consultants plying their trade amidst the murky and ever-changing world of spin and the remaking of issue.

Fleischer was hired by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in May, 2009, at a critical time for the USOC related to Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games, the ouster of popular CEO Jim Scherr and the sudden departure of chief communications Officer Darryl Seibel.

Fleischer said at the time that he would work on overall communications issues by helping "the USOC to think about the big picture" and work with the organisation’s communications staff as it goes through a transition period with the impending leadership change. He also said he would be able to offer the organisation both domestic and international political expertise as it pushes Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee then threw Chicago out in the first round on October 2.

"The USOC is one of the most exciting brands in sports," Fleischer said. "Everyone looks up to Olympians, and it’s an honour to be able to work with them."

There is no record of just what Fleischer actually did during his time with the USOC and acting CEO Stephanie Streeter, but his profile has exploded since with the activity for his newest clients, Mark McGwire, Tiger Woods, and the BCS (Bowl Championship Series). He also had handled the sticky issues surrounding the divorce between the Green Bay Packers and Bret Favre.

Fleischer (pictured) is just one of a growing legion of image and crisis experts in sports and politics who are making a lot of money to help athletes and organisations deal with a multitude of issues, from scandals, melt-downs and bad decisions to other embarrassments.

Say what you want about how the McGwire and Woods performances were received or staged, but it doesn’t matter anymore.

The idea is to get out there at a selected time, in front of a carefully chosen audience, take no questions or limit the questions, stay "on message", repeat particular lines over and over when an interviewer tries to take the questions outside the managed boundaries, tear up appropriately, and open up in a way that you did not as an athlete, ever.

The reviews are split on how these two performed, from ridicule to columnists insisting it’s time to move on. And that is the key to this peculiar dance now: move on and get off the stage and back to playing or coaching. No more interviews except perhaps another choreographed appearance at a tightly-controlled venue where media is restrained or the room is full of shouting, adoring fans openly hostile to reporters and television crews.

We live in a sports world where today’s news cycle changes rapidly, and whatever the big issue is will swiftly be replaced by the next, predictable scandal or controversy, and the sports public, wired to the internet, blogs and talk-shows, will quickly dive into the newest mess to chow down on. These spinmeisters and "handlers" know this all too well, and use that knowledge to pick the right time, the right audience and the venue to create the big event that simply shuts off further heavy attention or scrutiny, barring a relapse or previously unknown elements or facts.

But the public is not always that easily cajoled, duped or rendered sedated, and the artful apology is sometimes now parsed and seized upon, like McGwire’s stultifying insistence to stay on message that his use of steroids did not have an impact on his performance and the staggering numbers, despite the repeated attempts by interviewer Bob Costas to question him on the issue.

Then, recently, my old friend Bill Hancock, the chief executive of the BCS, fired back at critics in Congress about their concerns over how the organisation distributes its riches and which conferences seem to make out better than others. "I sure do think that Congress has more important things to do, with all the issues facing our country," said Hancock in an arranged phone interview with the Associated Press [That one of the standard actions in the crisis control playbook these days - no face-to-face sitdowns that could go wrong]. "The BCS is fair. Access is fair, revenue is distributed fairly, and frankly, we welcome the opportunity to tell our story every chance we get."

I love Hancock like a brother, brought him to the Olympic Games years ago on my staff to handle sensitive special tickets for the media, and we worked together in the old Big 8 Conference in sports publicity, but I would have not advised Hancock to be critical of what, and what not, The Congress should be dealing with. I would bet there are scores of young, ambitious Congressional staffers who took his statement to their bosses and offered them even more openings to meddle in the BCS issue and further create attention and scrutiny, when just the opposite is the desired end game.

The statement drew a quick, sharp response from critics of the BCS like the political action group The Playoff PAC that lobbies for a football playoff. "It’s astoundingly arrogant of the BCS to suggest that Congress has no business asking questions here. Students across the country are protesting tuition hikes, public universities are operating in the red. The BCS is holding an enormous pot of school-bound money, and they refuse to tell anyone how much they have, how much they spend, and how they’ll distribute funds."

That was the beginning of March, but today is towards the end of March, and the sports public has moved on to the amazing story of the Northern Iowa Panthers and their history-making upset of the Kansas Jayhawks, Tiger’s announcement that he will play in the Masters, prompting CBS Sports President Sean McManus to breathlessly say that Woods’ return to golf will be "the biggest media event other than the Obama inauguration in the past 10 or 15 years." Yup, Mission Accomplished.

McGwire is teaching hitting to Cardinal betters in spring training and taking no questions other than those from ESPN baseball analysts in high chairs between himself and the amazing Albert Pujols, on the art of hitting.

I’m no outsider to this phenomenon, trust me. I created scores of media events spotlighting USOC leadership and Olympic athletes, both to get ahead of an issue or quickly respond to it.

To spotlight a positive story and deliver it when media had not been interested, or to tell our side of the story. But none of these enjoyed the ambiance and luxury of a controlled audience and venue, nor any embargo on reporters’ questions and followup. Nor vapid, prepared text delivered to a mute throng of selected media and supporters.

We put it out there and took our lumps, not waiting a month after the incident, or leaving calls unreturned or avoided. That earned us consideration and maybe a break or two the next time, but we never ducked.

But that is ancient history now.

Mike Moran was the chief communications officer of the USOC for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003. In 2002 he was awarded with the USOC's highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award. He worked on New York's unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and is now director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.