I spent the other afternoon in the company of Mr Ben Ainslie, Olympic legend, world's best sailor and a man going for a fourth Olympic gold medal in Weymouth next year.   It was, as always a pleasure.
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By Ian Stafford

One of the least surprising items of news over the holiday weekend was the arrest of Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Games staged, if that's the right word, in New Delhi last October.
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By Ian Stafford

Fun and games last night in Trafalgar Square where we all assembled to watch the unveiling of the official Omega countdown clock to the Olympics.
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Spent a lovely hour in the company of Amy Williams yesterday back in her flat in the centre of Bath exactly one year to the day since she she won gold at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver after sliding her way at ridiculous speeds to the Olympic title on her skeleton bob.
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Zoe Smith is the kind of girl who leaves an immediate impact when you meet her, and that's even before you know what she has achieved in her fledgling sporting career.
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Amid all the Premiership football, autumn international rugby matches and the Brazilian Grand Prix you may have noticed that Britain did rather well in the world rowing championships down in New Zealand and that Katherine Grainger picked up yet another world title, this time in the pairs with her new partner Anna Watkins.
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I had the pleasure of the company of a 21-year-old yesterday called Louis Smith who, if you have not heard of him, is Britain's Olympic bronze medal-winning gymnast from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and world championships silver medallist from just last week on the pommel horse.
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I am still in a state of shock some 20 hours after hearing of the death of Andy Holmes, the double Olympic rowing gold medallist from suspected Weil's Disease.
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Some advice for any medal-winning English at the Commonwealth Games: bring War and Peace to read, or the Lords of the Rings trilogy on an i-pad to watch as you stand for the anthems.
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Ask Mo Farah about winning the 10K/5K double at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona and the Somalian-born British long-distance star is understandably excited. Ask "Fly Mo" about his recent contact with Arsenal Football Club and the man who hopes to repeat his Catalan feats at London 2012 can barely contain himself.
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