My Friend P is puzzled about why I am so affected by the admission, finally, by the American born and bred Olympic champion Jones that she took the substance THG - the clear - to aid in her powerful performances at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

P says she isn't the first and she certainly will not be the last discovered and embarrassed cheat so why am I so affected?

Well, truth is, I really, really love track and field. I have tremendous respect for the athletes who persevere with a sport that is gruelling, unforgiving and, sometimes, just downright cruel when it plays its cards of injury and unfortunate circumstances on and off the track. The people who give their all to this sport are to be respected and revered because it is not easy.

But, suddenly, Marion says to the world that sometimes what seems like true effort is all a big lie. Her lie is bigger than others' because she has consistently denied that which she has now admitted - she sued someone for this, wrote a bloody book about this and now she says: 'Oops! I lied'.

She cheated her peers but, most importantly, she cheated her fans and fans of the sport. I can't say that I was a huge fan of Marion - because I always wanted to see Jamaicans winning - but I respected her victories. And she has come to prove the saying true that, "if it all seems too good to be true then, just maybe, it isn't true."

Civil Suit

Some Jamaicans may now get to claim medals that were rightfully theirs. As if that makes a real difference now to the reality of the standing and professional loss of the athletes who were cheated of that which they ought to have won. There should be some sort of civil suit that makes cheats pay over potential lost earnings to those affected by their bad behaviour.

I had not intended to write a word about Marion this week. In fact, I had intended to do something entirely different, a detail on the progression of the world records in the women's and men's 100m and 200m just to illustrate the growth in the technique of the physical and mental prowess of mankind. A chart, if you will, on the gradual chipping away of the hundredths of a second off the mark over the past 80 years. I started and stopped because I don't like what I see.

I wrote last week of how the Internet has dramatically changed the way we live - well, maybe there is something we could learn from that in the training technique in the sprints that we have been ignoring that has dramatically changed the way mankind has been able to perform. Of course, faster tracks, greater understanding of the importance of the drive phase explains why is took 15 years to move from 9.95 to 9.93, but 24 years to move, with nine world record breakings in between, from 9.93 to 9.74. Hmm. Yeah, that explains it.

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