London to wipe slate clean for victims
ENNIS-HILL: Daegu ‘silver’ medal DAME JESSICA ENNIS-HILL will lead an extraordinary array of athletes who will finally receive medals they were cheated out of at the World Championships in London, which start a week on Friday.
Amazingly, 11 individual athletes and five teams from across 11 events from four previous World Championships – going back as far as Osaka in 2007 – have accepted invitations to receive their reallocated gongs.
These upgrades are the result of disqualifications following sanctions for anti-doping rule violations.
They include two gold medallists – Ennis-Hill, who finished second in the heptathlon behind Russian Tatyana Chernova in Daegu in 2011, and the USA women’s 4x400m relay team who were promoted to gold from Moscow in 2013 when hosts Russia were disqualified.
“I am delighted that the athletes are properly honoured for their achievements and what better way than in front of passionate athletics fans at a major event,” said IAAF president Lord Coe, “Whatever their nationality, clean athletes worldwide will celebrate with them.”
The USA squad of Jessica Beard, Natasha Hastings, Ashley Spencer and Francena McCorory will receive their gold medals next Friday, on the night the championships start, in a ceremony before the action begins along with the British and French teams who have also been upgraded.
Also on this opening night, Britain’s 4x400m relay women from Berlin in 2009 and Daegu in 2011, both promoted to bronze from fourth, will receive their medals.
On Saturday week, Britain’s Jo Pavey will receive bronze from the 10,000m at the World Championships in Osaka in 2007 – as will new silver medallist Kara Goucher, of the USA – with Ennis-Hill and Germany’s Jennifer Oeser, who now wins silver, receiving their medals on Sunday August 6. FIVE YEARS ago, Leeds Rhinos star Stevie Ward was preparing to collect his A-level results and play at Wembley in a Challenge Cup final.
He was a boy wonder tipped for the top – but he is still trying to get there, his career struck with a succession of cruel injury setbacks and a battle with depression that has changed his life.
The versatile second-rower has winners’ medals from Old Trafford and Wembley finals and should feature in Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final against Hull. But there have been dark days. Such as September 25, 2015. Ward buried his grandmother after she lost her battle with cancer and then played in a game at Huddersfield in which he suffered a knee injury.
Sidelined for much of last year, he set up an online magazine, Mantality, and wrote a moving account of his traumas and determination to fight the self-doubts.
“I was extremely anxious when I wrote that first article because I was putting my neck on the line,” said Ward, 23. “But I always knew it was for a good cause and the response has been absolutely fantastic.
“Depression is a monster that can stop you getting out of the house just as much as a broken leg.
“How do I explain what that feels like? Simply put, I didn’t value anything I did or said anymore.
“I was stuck in a rut of low moods, which is dangerous if you’re used to going out in front of roaring crowds at 8pm on Friday nights.
“Everyone struggles at certain points in their life but men, in