Editor's letter

Running comes first for Rocket Ronnie

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN (pictured) captured his third world snooker title earlier this week. In doing so, he won £250,000, plus half of the £157,000 prize for compiling a break of 147 during the tournament.

Six-time champion Steve Davis compares O’Sullivan’s brilliance to that of Tiger Woods in golf. Yet, despite this, O’Sullivan says if he had a choice between snooker and running, there would be no contest.

“If someone said I’d got a choice between running and snooker,” he says, “I’d give up snooker tomorrow, I get such a buzz from running. I love it – the mud, the fresh air.”

Thing is, O’Sullivan is not alone either. For the world of celebrity is full of athletics fanatics.

Like O’Sullivan, who is a decent club distance runner, there have been many great celebrity athletes.

In the realm of politics, for instance, the US president George W Bush is an avid runner and has clocked 3:44 for the marathon. Back in the UK, former Prime Minister Harold Wilson ran 53.8 for 440 yards during his student days. Former MP and novelist Jeffrey Archer ran for Britain as a sprinter. Menzies Campbell, leader of the Lib Dem Party until last year, ran 200m at the 1964 Olympics.

The world of acting is also full of keen runners. Oliver Reed was one of Britain’s best schoolboy cross-country runners. Two Hollywood Tarzans were great athletes – Herman Brix won silver in the 1928 Olympic shot put and Glenn Morris was the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion.

Then there’s Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, who ran 2:46:43 at the ING New York City Marathon last year. Armstrong is probably the world’s most famous “celebrity runner” at the moment and his marathon debut in New York in 2006 gained as many column inches as the elite winners.

All of which merely illustrates the enduring appeal of the simple art of putting one foot in front of the other.

Jason Henderson, Editor

From this week's Athletics Weekly, - available in WH Smith and all good newsagents, or on subscription

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