A real horror story

Security at the Olympic Games is costing a small fortune but the organisers cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Horror is a word that must not be used to describe the London Olympics whatever the cost.

I was only 13 when the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics were attacked by terrorists. I probably didn't realise how much sport was going to change as a consequence. Did anyone?

11 Israeli athletes and a coach, a police officer and five of the eight terrorists were killed.

One of the Israeli team who escaped the kidnapping was a race walker - Shaul Ladany.

It was some 10 years later that I became familiar with his name. I won the Bradford 50km in a time of 4:26:49 and the only faster time on the trophy at the time was Mr Ladany. One of my friends insisted that my time was the real record because  the other time (20 seconds faster) was on a short course (it had been altered due to road works).

I didn't loose any sleep over twenty seconds  at the time but it was only on reading an article about Shaul in the Independent recently that I realised just how secondary twenty seconds would have been to him.

The fact that his life has lasted 75 years is quite remarkable. Not only did he survive the terrorist attack on the Israeli team but he survived a concentration camp during World War II.

I have found a link to the article online and it must be read to be believed:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/shaul-ladany-still-king-of-the-road-6295322.html

For the record Melvin McCann beat both our times in Bradford.

And for the record too, horror is a word that will not be used to describe anything less than its real meaning on this site. And I just hope that I won't need to.