Patricia Mead

I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Belgrave Harriers legend, Patricia Mead. Pat, a former president of the club, has been one its most loyal supporters for decades. Vocal and informed, Pat graced athletics and cross country events across the country (and indeed world) from the local leagues to European Cups. She encompasses everything that is good about our sport: passionate, dedicated, particular and approachable. She was a graded official and along with her husband Alan, gave hours and hours of her time to the sport throughout the summer.

On a personal level, Pat was a fantastic supporter to me as I started my career in athletics. No matter what standard of athlete you were, no matter what club that you competed for, Pat always had time to talk athletics or whatever took your fancy. She was a talented official, a loyal Belgravian, engaging company and a great friend. The sport of athletics has today suffered an enormous loss.

James Fairbourn
2nd October 2010

ALBERTO CONTADOR: A CLARIFICATION

On July 25th, an article in the Lufbra Echo alleged that Alberto Contador had "not failed a single drugs test" during this year's Tour de France. Some readers believed that we were inferring that Mr Contador was in no way a drug cheat. Given the recent developments, we would like to retract the article in full and point out that Mr Contador did in fact fail a drugs test during the Tour and thus any inference of innocence was entirely false. Whilst we deny that we were deliberately setting out to portray Mr Contador as an honest sportsman, we understand how some readers may have incorrectly thought this to be the case.

We would like to apologise to Mr Contador for the upset and embarrassment that our article caused and are more than happy to set the record straight.