Inside Lines: Games legacy a joke, says Tessa Sanderson in running battle

Road rage: Sanderson is furious with Newham Council over charity runs (Getty)

Former gold medallist Tessa Sanderson has branded Olympic legacy "a joke" in an acrimonious dispute with Newham Council over the future of two annual charity runs her foundation organises in the Games heartland.

Sanderson, 56, claims that the Newham 10K, which has taken place for the past five years, is now under threat and that the council are "unfairly" blocking a repeat next April of the accompanying East London half-marathon, which was initiated last year but is now deemed by the council to be "too onerous".

She says: "They are trying to hammer and bully me into the ground over a few technical issues. They are being totally unfair. Every plan we have put to them has been rejected. They are putting barriers in the way of community events the competitors and residents want and which fit in with the Olympic legacy. But I have to ask, what legacy? It's a joke. The races are funded through my own foundation, which supports young local athletes. Newham Council doesn't give me a cent. What is their agenda? I suspect they want to run their own event next year."

The first British black woman to win Olympic gold – she was javelin champion at Los Angeles in 1984 – the feisty six-times Olympian has long had a fractious relationship with the council, who strongly deny her allegations, citing "significant ongoing concerns over the potential impacts, including road safety and traffic disruption."

They say that the "door has not been closed" on the 10K run, which Sanderson says last year had 3,000 runners of 45 different nationalities, but a spokesperson adds: "We are not prepared to compromise the potential safety of runners and residents or have major traffic jams in the borough. Representatives of the Tessa Sanderson Foundation have once again failed to convince the Newham Safety Advisory Group that they have a safe plan for the run which would not have a significant and unacceptable impact on local residents. The Advisory Group could not support the application for a half-marathon and expressed a number of significant concerns with the proposed 10K run, based on outstanding issues and the mixed record of the Foundation in delivering previous runs in Newham."

Seems this row will run and run – unlike Sanderson's races.

Scores need to be settled

We said George Groves would give Carl Froch a fright and a fight. And that he did. "Thanks for your honesty," texts the young Londoner, written off by most before last Saturday's bout in Manchester. Now the fallout from the fantastic world super-middleweight scrap must include the relevant authorities having a quizzical word with the referee, Howard Foster, over his questionable stoppage and a close examination of the scorecards – and the eyesight – of the two ringside judges who had Groves only one point ahead at the premature conclusion of a bout he was winning by the proverbial mile.

Such gross misjudgements are increasingly the bane of boxing, a worrying thought that Groves's pal Darren Barker will carry into the Stuttgart ring next weekend when he defends his IBF world middleweight title against Germany's Felix Sturm. The relatively unsung Barker, who has courageously overcome several personal setbacks, is being paid £1 million to forgo home advantage against an opponent who ominously has been the beneficiary of dodgy decisions in two previous fights with Brits. Barker is in territory where, as they say, you have to knock 'em out to get a draw.

Even if he avoids cuts, he may well get stitched up, a feeling Groves reckons he knows.

Ovett Grant-aided?

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, recruited to play Sebastian Coe in the new movie about his lordship's rivalry with Steve Ovett, describes himself as "depressingly boring", a phase similarly coined about Coe by a female Guardian hack.

When told about the Radcliffe role, Coe quipped: "Presumably George Clooney wasn't available!" Producers still seek a chippy, athletic actor to portray the media-phobic Ovett. Presumably Hugh Grant isn't available...

a.hubbard@independent.co.uk