Staring into the middle distance

The only sport I enjoy watching on TV is athletics - always have done, whether it's gripping 10,000 metre duels or mind-boggling feats of the jumpers and vaulters. This week has been a real treat. The World Championships in Berlin have been great and the BBC coverage is, as usual, terrific. Partcularly interesting coverage of 18 year old South African 800 metre runner and gold medalist Caster Semenya. The BBC have reported it as an ongoing story throughout these championships, as have all of the news channels that never touch athletics as a story. The difference is, the BBC coverage has been very thorough, fair and analytical - surprisingly so for sports coverage which isn't always the most subtle of beasts.

The BBC athletics panel have been quite brilliant, showing a measured and sympathetic side that pundits don't usually demonstrate. Denise Lewis has been a revelation, furious and compassionate in equal measure against the taxi-driving mentality of most sports coverage and officialdom and for the athlete whose reputation was unnecesarily thrown into dispute hour before she ran rather than out of competition when it would have been much easier for a teenager to deal with. 'In this case we have a girl who has possibly been born with a hormone imbalance, and it's not unheard of that girls of her age have have conflicting hormones. But this society is so lead by what is visually and aesthetically acceptable - stereotypes.' And Colin Jackson wanted to know, 'who's going to apologise to her for all of the rumour and speculation? I hope she just has the heart and desire to stay in this sport which has treated her so badly when she's been so successful.' This story has been a miserable episode in athletics mismanagement, but at least good people are covering this story amid the general media hysteria.