A year ago Richardson had rounded off the last leg in St Petersburg by using the baton as an imaginary cigar this

A year ago, Richardson had rounded off the last leg in St Petersburg by using the baton as an imaginary cigar; this time the mood – for many reasons – was anything but celebratory, although the Windsor athlete did kiss the British logo on his vest.There was satisfaction, too, for Keri Maddox, the 26-year-old former European junior high hurdles champion. She finished strongly in the 100m hurdles, knocking 0.14sec off her personal best with a time of 12.97sec, just 0.01sec slower than the French winner, Patricia Gerard. Maddox has spent a number of years concentrating on the 400m hurdles, but now she appears to have the best of both worlds. The strength she has gained in endurance training paid off for her yesterday.But Radcliffe’s was the outstanding British performance of the day.

She broke the rest of the field with a mid-race surge and ran on strongly for a winning time of 14min 48.79sec, the fasted in the world this year. That lifted the women into sixth place and confirmed the relegation of Poland and the Czech Republic – although, had Britain failed to escape, they would have avoided the drop because next year’s competition will be hosted by Gateshead. The women’s captain, who like the rest of the team sported a black ribbon in Baillie’s memory, also carried a red ribbon on her shirt – underlining her willingness to be blood-tested at any time.The gesture was thought of by the French 5,000m runner Blandine Bitzner, who wrote in the French press this week of the need to introduce more stringent measures to combat doping abuse in distance running. Bitzner, also wearing a red ribbon, accompanied Radcliffe on a lap of honour.Afterwards Radcliffe referred to what she described as “a number of dodgy performances” which had taken place in women’s distance running in the course of the last year. Whether that message will be heeded by the authorities remains to be seen..

THE INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee yesterday condemned the “excessive reaction” in Switzerland to Sion’s defeat in the vote for the 2006 Winter Games. The IOC was attacked by Swiss government officials, media and the general public after it awarded the games to Turin on Saturday by a vote of 53- 36. Above a page-wide photograph of women crying in the streets of Sion, on the front of a 20-page supplement which was supposed to be a victory souvenir issue, the daily Le Matin asked, “Why?” The weekly SonntagsBlick thought it had the answer: “It was revenge”.
The Swiss believed they had the bidding sewn up. It was Sion’s third application; the IOC technical commission had given the bid top marks; and the support from government, business and public was overwhelming.

Further, the Swiss had pressed their conception of Sion as the “fair play games”.Celebrations began the day before the announcement. In spite of the bidding committee’s caution and warnings about the damage done by the Swiss IOC member Marc Hodler when he blew the whistle on corruption, few doubted the result.The Swiss disappointment and sense of having been cheated was not eased by television pictures of Turin – where most people did not even know the bid was taking place and no one was celebrating.”Are we bad losers?” asked Le Matin “No. But the victory of a town which everyone agreed was inferior to Sion (except in terms of financial clout), the triumph of a candidate without popular support… everything makes us wonder about the behind-the-scenes forces which control the IOC today.”At the IOC Museum in Lausanne, staff reported that people were coming in and asking them how they could work for such a corrupt organisation. A statue was defaced with the word “Mafia” and police stepped up their presence in the face of possible demonstrations.All the Sunday newspapers in Switzerland agreed that at least part of the reason for Sion’s loss was a backlash against Hodler.

It was the Swiss lawyer and long-serving IOC member who revealed much of the corruption surrounding the IOC which led to a series of expulsions and resignations.”They wanted to punish Switzerland, and they have done it,” Hodler said.An editorial in SonntagsBlick agreed, saying “Marc Hodler said what had to be said in the context of the IOC corruption scandal.. Now Sion has to pay for that.”. JOHN DALY’S uncanny knack of coming across triumph and disaster within 72 holes of a tournament caught up with golf’s Wild Thing again yesterday in the final round of the 99th US Open. The former Open and USPGA champion took an 11, seven over par, at the eighth hole and threatened to boycott the championship in future in protest at the way the US Golf Association run the tournament. “All credit to whoever wins, but I don’t consider the US Open a major any more,” Daly, who shot an 83 to be 29 over par, said “The USGA try to embarrass the players. From now on, my majors are the British Open, the USPGA, the Masters and the Tour Championship.