Athletics

Advances in technology have affected every aspect of society. A baby's growth can be tracked in the womb, and life can be prolonged by pacemakers and dialysis machines. You can buy shares in an overseas company at the click of a button, and order flowers for next day delivery in a country the other side of the globe. No part of our culture is left untouched, and that includes sport.

These days, one of the main topics of discussion in Turkey is far from sports and its ethics due to the approaching referendum. However, with the latest news that added three more Turkish national athletes to the long chain of Turkish sportspeople who have been tested positive with doping, I wanted to write about the need for doping.

Bulgaria won two medals at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, which was held at the O2 Arena in Prague between March 5 and 8.

Radoslava Mavrodieva grabbed bronze at the shot put on Saturday, while Gabriela Petrova won silver at the triple jump on Sunday.

Mavrodieva achieved 17.83 metres in her second attempt, recording the best performance in her career to date.

By George Georgakopoulos

True to his word, the president of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), Paco Borao finished the Athens Marathon-The Authentic on Sunday, at the age of 68 years, running the course for the first time in his life.

South African star athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison on Oct. 21 for killing his girlfriend, in the climax to his sensational trial watched around the world.

Over 8,000 people from over 50 countries are expected to compete in this year's Bucharest International Marathon, which is half marathon and half relay races.

Parents of children under four years of age can run the 800-metre-long "Diapers Jog", while children aged five to 12 will also have their dedicated races.

Kenya's Dennis Kimetto smashed the marathon world record in Berlin, winning the race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds after setting a scintillating pace from the start to shave 26 seconds off the previous best

Italian runner Ivan Cudin won the 245.3km historic Spartathlon race on Saturday for a third time, clocking 22 hours, 29 minutes and 29 seconds.

Cubin, 39, fourth last year, also won in 2010 and 2011.

Finishing second for a second year in a row was Germany's 30-year-old Florian Reus in 23:57.13 while 33-year-old Andrzej Radzikowski of Poland was third in 25:49.05.

The chief of the children’s surgery unit at the Georgios Gennimatas Hospital in the northern port city of Thessaloniki was released on Friday from custody pending trial on charges of accepting a 1,000 bribe in order to operate on a 20-year-old patient.

He was also ordered to pay 10,000 euros in bail.

U.S. sprinter Justin Gatlin will go for a 100-200m double at the Diamond League finale in Brussels tonight, up against a raft of track stars but not Jamaican Usain Bolt.