PERHAPS if I had tried pole vaulting or small-bore rifle shooting I might have been an Olympic champion. Who knows what hidden reserves of talent we are all harbouring?

Such thoughts are inspired by a female optician qualifying for the Olympic marathon without even realising it was possible. But while we marvel at Tracey Morris's efforts, we should spare a thought for the swimmer who failed to qualify for Athens by a twentieth of a second.

Mark Foster, the 50 metres freestyle silver medallist at the World Championships, won the Olympic trial in 22.47 seconds, but it was 0.05 outside the 12th fastest time in the world last year, which he was required to match.

Foster was hoping to go to his fifth Olympics and believes he would have been a genuine medal contender. He claims he was receiving treatment from the British team physio at the time of the trial and should be given another chance. But national performance director Bill Sweetenham is not inclined to give him it.

So Foster could be all washed up at 33, while Tracey Morris, three years his senior, is going in at the deep end.

She lopped one hour six minutes off her time in her only previous marathon to finish tenth in the London event and had no idea that by being the leading British woman she had booked a flight to Athens.

She is now an elite squad member who can look forward to all the trimmings such as warm weather training, top hotels and advice from all manner of experts. That's if Dollond and Aitchison give her the time off, which they surely will given all the attendant free publicity.

Tracey will also benefit from grants to assist her training and whether all this is a worthwhile investment in a lifelong club runner is open to question. Even if she continues her remarkable improvement, she will not win a medal. But she is not another Eddie the Eagle or Eric the Eel and will command huge interest because of how good she is, not because she's a no-hoper.

I HAVE listened to both Shane Warne and his understudy, Stuart MacGill, this week and again been impressed with the way these Aussies handle Press conferences.

I have also watched them both bowl against Durham, and while MacGill may be a slightly better speaker he is not in the same class as a leg-spinner. The cynical view would be that for him to make himself unavailable to tour Zimbabwe is a bit like Andy Cole retiring from international football.

Warne looks super-fit after his year's ban and is bowling as well as ever, so MacGill has no chance of playing Test cricket. But he seemed impressively sincere in announcing that his conscience would not allow him go to Zimbabwe.

Andy Caddick and Robert Croft opted out of going to India for safety reasons, but I don't recall a cricketer declining to tour on moral grounds before and it will be interesting to see if others follow suit.

Following the sacking of 15 white players by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union there seems little point in going there anyway to play Tests against a bunch of schoolboys. It can be argued it is essential to keep playing them if cricket in Zimbabwe is to have a future, but it is more important for the ZCU to be run by people who are not politically motivated.

IN observing here three weeks ago that there was still an awful lot of football to be played I may have under-estimated the dangers of chasing success on more than one front. Arsenal's treble bid was instantly derailed, Sunderland went out of the cup and have lost three League games, Chelsea are rocking despite their huge squad, and Newcastle have been cruelly hit by injuries.

At least it has given Lee Bowyer a chance to prove his worth and he apparently had one of his better games when going on after 36 minutes to help secure the valuable point at Aston Villa.

Bowyer was a deeply controversial signing who has done little to justify Sir Bobby Robson's gamble, although he perhaps hasn't been as big a flop as his former Leeds teammate Harry Kewell at Liverpool.

It's extraordinary how the Leeds players who reached the Champions League semi-final turned into such a bunch of under-achievers - Jonathan Woodgate excepted, of course.

DEATHS are usually described as untimely, but the word is particularly appropriate in the case of Guinness Book of Records co-founder Norris McWhirter.

He has departed little more than two weeks before the 50th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile barrier, at which McWhirter was the timekeeper.

May 6 is the date when Bannister's historic run at Oxford will be celebrated. It has been described as "the last flowering of amateurism" on the grounds that no-one since has broken a significant barrier for no other reason than personal satisfaction. That's why the Tracy Morrises of this commercialised world are to be cherished.

Published: 29/04/2004