A staunch supporter of efforts to clean up the sport, Paula Radcliffe felt that her career and honesty were being attacked this week. She was obviously the unnamed British champion of London marathon in a poorly worded commentary in a Parlimentary hearing closed door event.
Here is how Greg Rutherford responded to it….
Greg Rutherford, 2015 WC, and Mike Powell, 1991 WC and WR holder, photo by PhotoRun.net
Greg Rutherford believes Paula Radcliffe is being punished for the ills of the sport. The marathon world record holder has been in the spotlight since she was effectively outed by a Parliamentary committee as one of the athletes with supposedly suspicious readings in the leaked IAAF database of 12,000 blood samples.
“Things are being thrown at her in the same way as Mo Farah previously, when there’s nothing to actually suggest that there’s a problem,” said Rutherford.
“Paula Radcliffe is one of the greatest athletes that Britain has ever had. To have to go through all this is horrible and a lot of clean athletes that have done well have had this at certain times.
“That’s the problem with the sport. It’s terrible to think that anybody who does well, then the insinuation from a lot of people immediately is that it must be drugs. It’s sad.”
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.
Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
by Larry Eder
Greg Rutherford, 2015 WC, and Mike Powell, 1991 WC and WR holder, photo by PhotoRun.net
