Dave Moorcroft, the chief executive of UK Athletics, yesterday renewed his calls for Britain’s drug-testing regime to be extended to include arbitration and disciplinary measures.

Speaking on the eve of the the inaugural UK Athletics annual congress in Manchester, Moorcroft has indicated once again that such an extension is the only long-term answer to the increasing number of legal challenges being faced by sporting bodies over doping issues.
The problem has been brought into sharp focus again this week following the decision by the European 200 metres champion, Doug Walker, to issue writs against both UK Athletics and the International Amateur Athletic Federation following their failure to agree over whether he is eligible to run following an adverse finding of nandrolone metabolites. And he still felt he had another really good 5,000 metres in him. And, in fact, he hadn’t altogether given up the plumbing either. Still had his bag in the cupboard below the stairs, as it happened.
Sensible? No Infuriating? Perhaps Refreshing? In a strange sort of way, yes Refreshing to the parts other beers cannot reach.. Dave Moorcroft, the chief executive of UK Athletics, yesterday renewed his calls for Britain’s drug-testing regime to be extended to include arbitration and disciplinary measures.

But as he sat staring at the very large trophy in his front room, Davies-Hale didn’t seem to realise it He would probably do another marathon, he said But then he hadn’t given up on the steeplechasing. After indicating his potential by reaching the 3,000m steeplechase semi-finals at the 1984 Olympics, this former plumber spread his attention to flat racing, then road racing, and finally the marathon, where he won the 1989 Chicago race on his debut.
At last, it seemed, Davies-Hale had found his true niche. They are all, to employ the f-word, focused.
And as yet another American sprinter kneels on the track with head bowed, giving thanks to the God of Victory, my reaction is: “Boring”. Where’s the human weakness, for God’s sake?
What athletics needs is a few more characters like Paul Davies-Hale, a British middle-distance runner whose talents were perhaps too numerous for his own good.

Which, in a sense, it was.
And who, even as they exulted in Dennis Taylor’s last-black victory in the 1987 world snooker final, did not warm to Steve Davis – the grinding winner, Mr Charisma Bypass – for the moment of indecision which had prevented him pocketing that ball, and the title, on the previous shot? Covering athletics brings one into contact with a depressing sequence of fanatical characters with heads full of goals, targets, discipline and impregnable self-obsession Sorry, self-belief. In being revealed as fallible, he became more fascinating.
The same process occurred with Bernhard Langer when he got the golfing version of Bristow’s affliction and became unable to strike a putt, to the point where he was only able to attempt the task with something resembling a crutch. God, he was hateful.
Then he got the yips – a mysterious mental block which rendered him unable to release a dart Torment Humiliation Impotence But did the Crafty Cockney bottle out? He did not He suffered, he practised, and at length he overcame. His chronic indecision became a thing of the past, although his character was permanently altered by the experience of it. And as he strolled forward to collect them, beer-fuelled cheers in his ears, Bristow would betray the complacent satisfaction of a pike that had just had a satisfying snack.