Sportswear giant Nike has divided opinion with claims that advanced technology can combine with training and talent to change the face of athletics. Mitch Phillips reports

From opposite sides of the world — and opposing ends of the power spectrum — two voices struck a very different chord yesterday on the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to issue a blanket ban on Russia ahead of next month’s Olympic Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is leading global calls for Russia to be banned from the Rio Olympics and Paralympics after a devastating report uncovered the extent of Russia’s state-directed doping.

Russia has vowed its Rio 2016 hopefuls would “go over and above” demands to prove they are clean of drugs after the bar was raised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The International Olympic Committee has retested 454 anti-doping samples taken from athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, catching 31 cheats from six different sports and 12 countries.

The Kremlin yesterday dismissed allegations that Russia had run a sophisticated doping programme at the last winter Olympics as treacherous slander, calling the ex-head of the country’s anti-doping laboratory “a turncoat.”

Sonia O’Sullivan said her life would have been different if drug cheats had not robbed her of two gold medals early in her running career.

The Irish Examiner Cork City Marathon will celebrate its 10th anniversary next June after details of the 2016 event were announced yesterday, and with a call for uniformed service personnel to take part in a “Battle of the Badges”.

The International Olympic Committee threatened punishments for those proven to have violated doping rules and it seems heads have started to roll.

World champion walker Rob Heffernan has said he is “dreaming” amid reports that he may be upgraded to Olympic bronze following the doping scandal that has engulfed world athletics.

Russia faces being banned from the Rio 2016 Olympics after an investigation revealed “state-sponsored” doping on a wide scale in one of sport’s biggest ever scandals.

Sebastian Coe has stressed his determination to “rebuild and repair” athletics by leading the sport through the “dark days” of the crisis currently engulfing it.

The London 2012 Olympics was “sabotaged” by the presence of Russian athletes with suspicious doping profiles, according to a WADA independent commission report.

Paula Radcliffe has passionately denied ever cheating during her career and said she was “devastated” to have been linked to widespread doping allegations which have engulfed athletics.

Usain Bolt rode to the rescue of his beleaguered sport in the toughest race of his career as he dashed Justin Gatlin’s hopes of 100m gold at the World Championships in Beijing.

Outgoing athletics chief Lamine Diack admits his sport is in crisis because of the doping allegations leveled at it over the last month, but still believes “99%” of athletes are clean.

Sonia O’Sullivan narrowly missed out being elected to the IAAF Council on the day Sebastian Coe was elected the new president of the international athletics governing body.

FROM an Irish perspective, there is bitter irony in the fact that China is where former Olympic 1,500m champion Sebastian Coe won the race to be president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the body that governs world athletics.

The world athletics governing body has been accused of blocking a survey that revealed a third of top athletes admitting cheating.

Chris Froome’s claims that athletics should follow cycling’s lead and invest more heavily in anti-doping have been criticised by track and field’s global governing body.

Twenty-eight athletes have been suspended over historic doping offences, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced last night.

Athletics Ireland CEO John Foley says the association is deeply concerned about the allegations of widespread doping in the sport, reported in yesterday’s Sunday Times.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said it is alarmed by “wild allegations” made by two European media outlets of widespread suspicious drug tests in track and field, and is asking an independent body to investigate.

Sebastian Coe has backed the International Association of Athletics Federations to issue a “robust and detailed response” to a Sunday Times report alleging widespread doping in the sport.

Athletics is set to be engulfed in a fresh doping crisis following the “biggest leak of blood-test data in sporting history”, the Sunday Times reports.

An all-weather running track and associated facilities were officially opened in Enniscorthy at the weekend as part of a €1m sports hub.

Olive Loughnane looks set to be upgraded to women's 20k walk world champion after the Russian Anti-doping Agency annulled the results of 2009 World Champion Olga Kaniskina.

Gary O’Hanlon will be the star attraction of the 7,000 runners set to descend upon St Patrick’s Street at the Cork City Marathon at 9am on Bank Holiday Monday when he bids to win his third marathon in the space of 15 days.

A fireman is set to feel the heat as he sets out to break a world record for running a marathon in full firefighting gear.

Athletics’ world governing body will hand four-year bans to those caught doping from 2015 — a move president Lamine Diack hopes will help in the never-ending fight with drug cheats.

Embattled International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid has been re-elected to serve on the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations Council, cycling’s world governing body has announced.

Oscar Pistorius would be welcomed back to certain athletics meetings when he decides to return to competition, his agent Peet van Zyl has claimed.

Oscar Pistorius was drug-tested before and during last year’s Paralympic Games in London, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said, adding that on both occasions the results were negative.

Blade runner Oscar Pistorius broke down in tears as he appeared in court today accused of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend at his exclusive South African home.

Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius arrived at a court in South Africa today, charged with murdering his girlfriend at his home in Pretoria.

Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius is due to appear in court today after being arrested on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend after she was shot dead at his home.