Winners and losers...

So Russia is guilty of state-sponsored doping of its athletes: hardly the most surprising revelation of a startling summer. I hear two conflicting and mutually incompatible statements from pundits, commentators and the people who run our sports. Firstly, winning is all that matters. Secondly, that sports people should not take performance enhancing drugs. No one seems to see the exquisite irony inherent in the juxtaposition of these two points of view.

The idea of “taking an unfair advantage” can easily be stretched to taking nutritional supplements, training at altitude, having expert medical advice and access to top-quality facilities. As Maria Sharapova discovered, a harmless ‘supplement’ that was acceptable a year ago can suddenly be redefined as a performance enhancing drug.

It looks like the Olympics will take place without any Russian involvement. But as long as the motto of sports people is “show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser”, the search for unfair advantage will continue…

The canal basin at Buxworth (or Bugsworth, as it used to be known) on the Peak Forest Canal...