Up at the crack of dawn

Does that matter? Obviously not to BBC Radio Five Live, who rushed away from Pippa Funnell's attempt to win an individual medal to bring us the national anthem at St James' Park. At least we didn't have to suffer the ritual booing of the visitors' anthem.

We did win five medals on Wednesday to provide a belated boost to Olympic morale. Now I expect us to win at least three golds this weekend through the coxless four, Paula Radcliffe and Ben Ainslie to follow the one secured by Shirley Robertson's trio yesterday.

We won't match the Sydney total of 11, but the beauty of the Olympics lies in the utter delight shown by outsiders like swimmer Stephen Parry and canoeist Helen Reeves in winning a bronze.

Parry has risen at 5am every day for 15 years to achieve his moment of glory and there's a similar tale of dedication behind Nathan Robertson's journey to that gripping badminton final with Gail Emms.

What drama in their glorious fightback, and what frustration in their ultimate defeat.

Then there's archery bronze medallist Alison Williamson, who also gets up at the crack of dawn for her early training slot at Crystal Palace. This was her fourth Olympics and while never finishing out of the top ten she had never threatened to win a medal. There were times when she wondered whether it was all worth it. Now she knows it is.

The Olympics mean everything to these minority sport people, unlike the tennis players. Tim Henman might bristle at suggestions that it's a low priority event to him, but why didn't he enter the doubles?

Then there's the United States basketball team losing to Puerto Rico - marvellous for the underdogs, but the Olympics are no place for prima donna professionals whose individual salaries probably surpass the Puerto Rican gross national product.

EVEN before Paula has donned her spikes, Helen Reeves, Alison Williamson, Gail Emms and the yachting girls have added weight to my observations last week about the fairer sex taking over. And I thought Leslie Law had struck another blow when winning silver in three-day eventing. Then I discovered he was male.

The girls are going well, despite the swimming failures. It's been plain sailing for Shirley, however, and the heroes of our water babes, if they strike gold, will be Matthew Pinsent and Ben Ainslie.

Pinsent because it will be his fourth and Ainslie because of his sheer determination in fighting back from what he saw as an unjust disqualification in an early race.

It's amazing how these rules disputes keep cropping up, with the three-day eventing controversy bringing a farcical climax to a dignified event. The gold medal winner was said to have crossed the start line twice and was penalised. You would think the rules would be clear, but then her appeal was upheld.

SUCH rows all help to ensure that drugs do not provide the only controversy and I was intrigued to listen to those Geordie heroes Steve Cram and Brendan Foster chewing the doping rag on TV. Foster put his old adversary Lasse Viren, twice winner of both 5,000 and 10,000m Olympic golds, second only to Emil Zatopek among the greats of distance running and Cram was obliged to ask if he felt sure Viren was clean.

The Finn hardly won anything else and has always been suspected of blood doping, but Foster said: "I have to believe he was clean otherwise my whole athletics career was a waste of time."

It was a chilling admission, clearly underlining why drugs are such an emotive issue. For those who rely on talent, relentless training, guts and determination, to be beaten to a medal by a cheat cannot possibly bear thinking about.

GALWAY'S a lovely spot and no doubt the 24 English media people had a jolly time there on Wednesday on the pretext of watching Jonny Wilkinson's 40-minute comeback. Most of what was written about it could have been written from home.

Clive Woodward didn't make the trip, quite rightly observing: "There was never any doubt as far as I was concerned that he would make it back."

Jonny will be back in an England shirt soon and hopefully he'll also be able to play a significant part in raising the strengthened Newcastle squad to exciting heights in European rugby.

JONNY is a rather different character from Kieron Dyer, and while Sir Bobby Robson will not admit defeat in his attempt to tame the leading member of his bag of rascals it would obviously be best all round if Dyer departed Newcastle as soon as possible.

The avuncular Robson, having grown up in a different era, has retained sufficient faith in the quality of British people to offer a home to the likes of Dyer.

Do not anticipate a huge rush to relieve him of this miscreant.

Published: 20/08/2004