Sue's Sports Starter by Sue_Thearle

Hello again sports fans. I trust you are all well. After the extraordinary events of the last few days, I wonder how many of you are reading this where you should be, or perhaps stranded somewhere exotic or not, halfway round the globe. I was presenting the news on the BBC News Channel on Friday and I now feel I know more than I could possibly have imagined about ash clouds and pyroclastic flow. But as my lovely husband would happily tell you, I am totally fascinated by extreme weather and natural events and like nothing more than to settle down in front of the telly and watch a programme about Super Storms on National Geographic.

However gold medal of the weekend has to go to Britain’s Ice Hockey team, who made it to the World Championships in Slovenia after a 26-hour coach journey from Calais. They arrived late on Saturday and had about 3 hours preparation before playing their first match of the tournament. Amazingly they beat Croatia 4-1, which according to their coach Paul Thompson was thanks to a burst of adrenalin. They have since won their second match against South Korea, so fair play to them for making a virtue out of necessity.

The Champions League semi-finals will go ahead this week, but the Europa League semis involving Liverpool and Fulham are still up in the air, if you’ll forgive the pun. And in terms of conspiracy theories, well my favourite has to be that the airspace has been cleared to allow aliens to arrive…… Honestly I think Arsenal have got more chance of winning the title now and that really is saying something. And is it me, or is Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski the most unfortunately named sportsman going? Because Fabianski he most certainly ain’t. Although he does look a little bit like Joey from Friends. There. I’ve ranted. It must be all the volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

Well I must away and make my return to the gymnasium. Yes I am going to try and have a little run. An interval session actually. I've given myself a break since the horrors of Kingston and actually missed running. Blimey who knew? However, ask me how I feel about it later and you may get a different answer. I am also going to have a pedicure. For no good reason. What a treat. No excuse for having toenails like a sheepdog even if I am in training and all that. And I have to start the running again because there’s less than 5 weeks to go now…….mind you with all that volcanic ash, my flight up there could yet get cancelled………