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Sonia O'Sullivan: "Paula Radcliffe probably shouldn't have made a statement"

Tonight on Off The Ball, Dave McIntyre and Colm 'Wooly' Parkinson were down in Kerry for Caps To ...



Sonia O'Sullivan: "Pau...
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Sonia O'Sullivan: "Paula Radcliffe probably shouldn't have made a statement"

Tonight on Off The Ball, Dave McIntyre and Colm 'Wooly' Parkinson were down in Kerry for Caps To The Summit and the Carrauntoohil climb in aid of the Alan Kerins project.

With the beauty of the Kingdom as the backdrop, Dave helmed panels with a number of special guests and first up were Irish athletics legend Sonia O'Sullivan and "the Godfather of Kenyan running" and coach of 800 metre Olympic champions David Rudisha, Brother Colm O'Connell.

With athletics under scrutiny of late, O'Sullivan shared her thoughts on the controversy.

"I think the right person won for lots of different reasons," she said of Usain Bolt's 100 and 200 metre victories over the twice-banned Justin Gatlin.

"You can't be encouraging people to cheat and then come back into the sport two years later because it's been proven that if you cheat once that the substances can stay in your body and you still get the benefit of it on the track."

She also believes that new IAAF president Seb Coe's "heart is in the right place" in terms of the potential for change.

O'Sullivan also addressed the scrutiny around marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, who she regards as clean, acknowledging that: "Paula has always been very outspoken against drugs and her stance that she has never cheated before".

"I think in a way she's brought a lot of the attention on herself this week, probably more than was necessary and she probably could have let it go a bit quieter than she did," O'Sullivan continued, before adding, "who else in this room knew that they were speaking about her in parliament. I think she probably shouldn't have made a statement".

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