Month: April 2012

Doping, drugs, David and Dwain: Chambers and Millar return to the Olympic fold

So Dwain Chambers and David Millar could be competing for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics, despite being banned for doping offences. The Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) has decided that a lifetime ban by the British Olympic Association does not comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency code and is therefore unenforceable. This has…

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Rainy day blues

It’s raining. Really, properly raining – none of this half-hearted sunshine-and-showers business. No, in keeping with the economic mood of the country, it’s just steady, wet stuff teeming relentlessly down – enough to have me checking periodically that the house isn’t leaking. Of course we need it – water levels are a bit alarming –…

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An Interview with Sir Matthew Pinsent

You may recall that a few weeks ago I told you that to celebrate the launch of the Official Book of the London 2012 Olympic Games, rowing legend and all round nice guy Sir Matthew Pinsent had (perhaps rashly) agreed to submit himself for questioning, and that members of the public (and that included you)…

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The optimum nutrition for rowing

Until recently I’d always taken the view that sports supplements were really for Other People. Bodybuilders who needed to build muscle fast; teenage boys working on their biceps; oh, and proper sportsmen and women whose achievements justified spending money on extra products. I’d also assumed that they tasted as good as a 1970s meal replacement…

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From Monmouth to Dartmouth – the rowers go on tour

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so once a year Monmouth RC goes off on a jolly. Last year we headed to Brugge to row in the rain, eat chocolate, climb lamp posts and generally make whoopee. This year it was Dartmouth’s turn to host the boisterous crowd that is the…

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Rowing and elitism: a state school has its say

After my last post about whether rowing is elitist, a lovely woman called Rachel got in touch to tell me about the Herculean efforts that she and a bunch of other parents and grandparents have been putting in to give their kids a chance to row at the state school they attend. I was so…

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Is rowing elitist? The Boat Race 2012 and Trenton Oldfield

So the newsfest that is the 2012 Boat Race continues, and now it appears that we know who the rogue swimmer is: a 35-year-old man named Trenton Oldfield (with a name like that he should have been a rocker, not a protester) wishing to complain about elitism. In an extended rant he set out his…

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Boat Race 2012 – a drama, a crisis and learning to be sporting

Much is still unclear about the 2012 Boat Race. First and foremost, we don’t yet know how Alex Woods is; the latest we’ve heard is that he’s been taken away in an ambulance, and everyone’s thoughts are of course with him. We don’t yet know who the rogue swimmer was, nor what he was doing…

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Flip-flops and footbeds for problem feet

Now that I am officially a runner as well as a rower (see yesterday’s post about my accidental half marathon), I’ve been spending as much time thinking about my feet as I have about my hands (my usual obsession). There’s no doubt that running takes its toll on your poor old plates of meat, so…

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An accidental half marathon

I blame Jürgen Grobler. Or possibly Team GB. Or whoever had the frankly inspired idea to announce the GB Olympic crews by means of a row-past (genius – the drama!) Anyway, whoever is to blame, the point is that I was excited and distracted and not in my right mind around 11 a.m. today. Which…

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