STORYLINE:

Top marathon runners Eluid Kipchoge, Wilson Kipsang and Zersenay Tadese joined Tirunesh Dibaba, Glady Cherono and Edna Kiplagat in the shadow ot the famous Brandenburg Gate to look ahead to the Berlin Marathon in Germany on Friday (14th September).  

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

Two days before there 45th Berlin Marathon takes place in the German capital, some of the favourites for the men's and women's races were invited to the famous Brandenburg Gate to promote the event.

The Berlin marathon has adopted the nickname 'the fastest marathon in the world' on the back of ten world record having been set on the course over the years.

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, the current men's Olympic champion and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic 10,000 metres champion, will both start as favourites in the men's and women's races.

However, it will not be a stroll for either on Sunday.

While he might carry the favourite's tag with ease, the pressure is on Kipchoge to break a world record that was set in Berlin four years ago by his compatriot Dennis Kimetto at 2 hours 2 minutes and 57 seconds.   

Kipchoge has got as close as 2:03:05.

He has also won his last eight marathons in a run stretching back to Berlin in 2013.

Lining up against Kipchoge will be fellow countrymen Wilson Kipsang, Eliud Kiptanui and Amos Kipruto, plus Abera Kuma of Ethiopia.

Kipsang ran well at Tokyo in 2017, taking first place ahead of compatriots Gideon Kipketer and Dickson Chumba in a time of 2:03:58, but he dropped out of the Berlin run last year.

Kiptanui and Kipruto are experienced campaigners both with personal bests around 2 hours and five minutes.

Kuma has also been on the circuit for several years, though his personal best came just this spring, a 2:05:50 time in Rotterdam.

The women's race is more evenly balanced.

The main threat to Dibaba is likely to come from her fellow Ethiopians Aselefech Mergia and Ruti Aga, and Kenyan pair Gladys Cherono and Edna Kiplagat.  

Cherono won the Berlin marathon for the second time last year and, along with the other prominent names, will be hoping that their greater experience can be brought to bear on Dibaba, who will be competing in only her fifth marathon.   

However, that might just mean that the best of Dibaba is yet to come.

Her personal best of 2:17:56 places her behind only Paula Radcliffe and Mary Keitany on the all-time list.

Hotel Intercontinental and Brandenburg Gate Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 14th September 2018.

1. 00:00 Rio Olympic marathon champion Eluid Kipchoge (right) is greeted by a firend prior to the press conference

2. 00:07 Eluid Kipchoge (left) sitting with Wilson Kipsang (centre) and Zersenay Tadese (right) at the beginning of press conference

3. 00:11 Kipchoge, Kipsang and Tadese walk onto stage

4. 00:17 SOUNDBITE (English): Zersenay Tadese, Eritrea:

"Yes I hope so, because I have prepared well and I will try my best."

5. 00:27 Cutaway camera

6. 00:31 Kipchoge, Kipsang and Tadese in profile

7. 00:36 SOUNDBITE (English): Eluid Kipchoge, Kenya:

"My last race was in London in April and after going back to training, all has been well, up to the last of my training sessions at the beginning of this week and I can assure you that we will have a good race on Sunday..."

(Q: So you're only focused on Berlin, you're not doing any other races?)

"No. Absolutely my full focus is on this race."

8. 01:04 Cutaway camera

9. 01:09 SOUNDBITE (English): Wilson Kipsang, Kenya:

"For me I think my last race was, in which I did very well, was last year in New York, but this year running in New York wasn't well (doesn't fit the schedule), but all true, I've just been training and preparing for Berlin."

10. 01:22 Wide shot of stage

11. 01:29 SOUNDBITE (English): Wilson Kipsang, Kenya:

"I think all has really been going very well. I'm really focusing so much, I think what is left for me is to secure it on Sunday."

12. 01:40 Tadese and Kipchoge in profile

13. 01:45 SOUNDBITE (English): Wilson Kipsang, Kenya:

"If I try to look back to 2013 when I broke the world record, I ran a negative split so that is... basically my plan run under 6130 (one hour, one minute and 30 seconds), which is a world record pace, but run a negative split in the second half (of the race)."

14. 02:02 Wide of press conference.

15. 02:06 SOUNDBITE (English): Eluid Kipchoge, Kenya:

"Its already in the back of my mind... I will try my best to run in Tokyo."

16. 02:15 Wie shot Kipchoge and Kipsang on stage

17. 02:19 SOUNDBITE (English): Eluid Kipchoge, Kenya:

(on his experience of Japanese marathon runners)

"Oh, I met two of them last June when I visited Tokyo and they are preparing very well towards 2020 Olympics."

18. 02:30 Cutaway photographer.

19. 02:35 SOUNDBITE (English): Wilson Kipsang, Kenya:

(on the 2020 Olympics and Japanese marathon runners)

"I think for me 2020 is too far (away at the moment). A lot of things can happen in between, but I am looking forward. By that time that I should still be in top shape that I may qualify and be selected as one of the representatives from Kenya for the 2020 Olympics."

20. 02:57 Cutaway press taking photographs

21. 03:01 Kipchoge, Kipsang and Tadese on stage

22. 03:06 Pan up to Kipchoge, Kipsang and Tadese holding their name tags

23. 03:11 Wide of marathon runners and press

24. 03:18 Kenyan marathon runner Glady Cherono waves to the crowd at Hall of Fame venue in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

25. 03:22 Close up Cherono

26. 03:25 Cherono holds up her nname tag to the crowd

27. 03:29 Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) waves to the crowd

28. 03:35 Close up Dibaba

29. 03:38 Dibaba walks to wall of fame to find her name

30. 03:47 Three elite female favourite runners for Berlin Marathon for 2018 on stage together, Tirunesh Dibaba, Glady Cherono and Edna Kiplagat (Kenya)

31. 03:54 Close up Kiplagat

32. 03:59 Wide of Hall of Fame stage

33. 04:02 Kipchoge signs autographs for fans

34. 04:09 Kipsang signs autographs

35. 04:15 Kipchoge and Kipsang in the crowd at Brandenburg Gate

36. 04:20 Tadese waves from Hall of Fame to the crowd

37. 04:26 Kipsang waves to crowd from stage

38. 04:32 Kipsang shows name tag to crowd

39. 04:36 Kipchoge waves to crowd from Hall of Fame stage

40. 04:45 Kipchoge points at his name on wall of fame

41. 04:51 All the athletes at wall of fame together

42. 04:56 Close up Dibaba

43. 04:59 Wide shot of athletes

SOURCE: SNTV

DURATION: 05:18

LEAD IN:

A 27-year old Jordanian man is training for the Berlin Marathon despite fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh also hopes to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo with the help of a specially designed diet and exercise program.

STORY-LINE:

Another day on the track for marathon runner Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh.

For 30 days, he's training and eating according to a program he's developed with nutritionists and trainers in the US and Jordan. He's hoping to get his best ever time at the upcoming marathon in Berlin.

But this is no ordinary training schedule - it's taking place during Ramadan, the holy Islamic month in which he is required to fast between the hours of sunrise and sunset.

"It's tough. Once I get to the track I just forget that I'm fasting. Sometimes you cannot forget about it because in the middle of the work out you hit the wall, but you have to keep pushing", he explains.

Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh is pushing himself because he is also hoping to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The 27-year old Jordanian works 40 hours a week at Generations for Peace, where he trains young people throughout the world to achieve peace making and conflict resolution through sports.

While training builds his physical strength, al-Khawaldeh says fasting develops his mental strength.

"It's a great feeling, the sense that you have that power in your body that you didn't know was there but comes out during Ramadan", he says.

Al-Khawaldeh has built a diverse team of people to support his marathon ambitions. They include a Sudanese trainer, an American running coach and a Jordanian nutritionist. He's been working with this team for the past three years to develop his mental and physical strength.

Hanoia Adam, a Sudanese runner and fitness coach, times al-Khawaldeh's daily runs during Ramadan before iftar. These are shorter, lighter exercises designed for a body already stressed by more than sixteen hours of hunger and thirst.

"Before iftar it's difficult but at the same time great, because about an hour before iftar there's a feeling of power and you're able to do some great work then. Training during Ramadan truly is sweet", Adam says.

Al-Khawaldeh breaks his fast with a meal specially designed to recover nutrition lost during the long day of fasting and the pre-iftar workout.

He generally starts with potassium-rich smoothies of skimmed milk, protein powder, bananas and dates, followed by a light meal of vegetables and lean protein like chicken. This diet replaces glycogen and nutrients lost throughout the day's fasting.

He tracks his meals with the help of Aseel al-Saleh, a nutrition coach who specialises in "precision nutrition" for athletes.

Since starting the new diet of vitamin supplements and meals six months ago, al-Khawaldeh has lost 2.5kg of body fat and gained 0.8kg of muscle.

Al-Saleh helped al-Khawaldeh develop a Ramadan meal plan that fits the needs of an athlete and an observant Muslim.

"The key to improved performance during Ramadan fasting is recovery, repair, sleep and supplementation. When it comes to iftar and suhoor (post-sunset and pre-sunrise meals) focus mostly on good quality carbohydrates, good quality proteins and lots of vegetables", says al-Saleh.

After iftar, al-Khawaldeh sleeps for a few hours and then starts his workout again at midnight. This time the exercise is much harder and longer. A support car follows him with protein shakes and water (he must drink up to 4 litres of water a day) as he races along the highway south of Amman.

LEAD IN:

A 27-year old Jordanian man is training for the Berlin Marathon despite fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh also hopes to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo with the help of a specially designed diet and exercise program.

STORY-LINE:

Another day on the track for marathon runner Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh.

For 30 days, he's training and eating according to a program he's developed with nutritionists and trainers in the US and Jordan. He's hoping to get his best ever time at the upcoming marathon in Berlin.

But this is no ordinary training schedule - it's taking place during Ramadan, the holy Islamic month in which he is required to fast between the hours of sunrise and sunset.

"It's tough. Once I get to the track I just forget that I'm fasting. Sometimes you cannot forget about it because in the middle of the work out you hit the wall, but you have to keep pushing", he explains.

Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh is pushing himself because he is also hoping to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The 27-year old Jordanian works 40 hours a week at Generations for Peace, where he trains young people throughout the world to achieve peace making and conflict resolution through sports.

While training builds his physical strength, al-Khawaldeh says fasting develops his mental strength.

"It's a great feeling, the sense that you have that power in your body that you didn't know was there but comes out during Ramadan", he says.

Al-Khawaldeh has built a diverse team of people to support his marathon ambitions. They include a Sudanese trainer, an American running coach and a Jordanian nutritionist. He's been working with this team for the past three years to develop his mental and physical strength.

Hanoia Adam, a Sudanese runner and fitness coach, times al-Khawaldeh's daily runs during Ramadan before iftar. These are shorter, lighter exercises designed for a body already stressed by more than sixteen hours of hunger and thirst.

"Before iftar it's difficult but at the same time great, because about an hour before iftar there's a feeling of power and you're able to do some great work then. Training during Ramadan truly is sweet", Adam says.

Al-Khawaldeh breaks his fast with a meal specially designed to recover nutrition lost during the long day of fasting and the pre-iftar workout.

He generally starts with potassium-rich smoothies of skimmed milk, protein powder, bananas and dates, followed by a light meal of vegetables and lean protein like chicken. This diet replaces glycogen and nutrients lost throughout the day's fasting.

He tracks his meals with the help of Aseel al-Saleh, a nutrition coach who specialises in "precision nutrition" for athletes.

Since starting the new diet of vitamin supplements and meals six months ago, al-Khawaldeh has lost 2.5kg of body fat and gained 0.8kg of muscle.

Al-Saleh helped al-Khawaldeh develop a Ramadan meal plan that fits the needs of an athlete and an observant Muslim.

"The key to improved performance during Ramadan fasting is recovery, repair, sleep and supplementation. When it comes to iftar and suhoor (post-sunset and pre-sunrise meals) focus mostly on good quality carbohydrates, good quality proteins and lots of vegetables", says al-Saleh.

After iftar, al-Khawaldeh sleeps for a few hours and then starts his workout again at midnight. This time the exercise is much harder and longer. A support car follows him with protein shakes and water (he must drink up to 4 litres of water a day) as he races along the highway south of Amman.

Amman, Jordan - 25 June 2016

1. Various of Mo'ath al-Khawaldeh running around a track in Sports City in Amman in the twilight hour before Iftar

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Moa'th al-Khawaldeh, Jordanian long-distance runner:

"It's tough. Once I get to the track I just forget that I'm fasting. Sometimes you cannot forget about it because in the middle of the work out you hit the wall, but you have to keep pushing."

3. Various of al-Khawaldeh tying shoes, stretching and warming up

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Moa'th al-Khawaldeh, Jordanian long-distance runner:

"Generally fasting is not easy, especially in summer. But thank God I've been fasting since I was little, but now for me there's a new side to fasting and that's training while fasting. In the beginning last year it was a little difficult but thank God we were able to learn what exactly to focus on - what to eat, what to drink, what to eat for suhoor, what to break the fast with after the call to prayer, what to focus on two hours after the prayer - these all help one out and then we are able to train and fast together."

5. Mid of al-Khawaldeh and Hanoia Adam, a Sudanese runner and fitness coach who helps al-Khawaldeh train

6. Wide of al-Khawaldeh and Adam

7. Close of Adam blowing a whistle

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanoia Adam, Sudanese runner and fitness coach:

"There are difficulties but you feel after breaking the fast it's even harder. Before iftar it's difficult but at the same time great, because about an hour before iftar there's a feeling of power and you're able to do some great work then. Training during Ramadan truly is sweet."

9. Close of al-Khawaldeh's feet

10. Wide of al-Khawaldeh sprinting

11. Mid of al-Khawaldeh running past

12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Moa'th al-Khawaldeh, Jordanian long-distance runner:

"The most beautiful thing is breaking the fast after the call to prayer by drinking water. I don't always know if I will do the exercise or be able finish it, but then you do and break the fast. It's a great feeling, the sense that you have that power in your body that you didn't know was there but comes out during Ramadan."

13. Wide of mosque sounding out the call to prayer, a signal that the day's fasting is over

14. Various of al-Khawaldeh preparing and drinking a smoothie with skimmed milk, dates, banana and almonds

15. Various of al-Khawaldeh eating a meal prescribed by his nutrition coach Aseel al-Saleh

16. Close of al-Khawaldeh tracking his food consumption

AP Television

Amman, Jordan - 28 June 2016

17. Close of sign for office of nutrition company DNA

18. Mid of exterior of DNA office

19. Various of "precision nutrition" certified coach Aseel al-Saleh

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Aseel al-Saleh, nutrition coach:

"The key to improved performance during Ramadan fasting is recovery, repair, sleep and supplementation. When it comes to iftar and suhoor (post-sunset and pre-sunrise meals) focus mostly on good quality carbohydrates, good quality proteins and lots of vegetables. When it comes to suhoor, focus on low-fat and fat-free dairy because it has a type of protein called casein which is the slowest absorbed protein that keeps you sustained for longer hours throughout the next day."

21. Various of al-Khawaldeh training at night after iftar and before suhoor on the highway south of Amman.

Slovenian/Natsound

He may be 97 years old - but five-time Olympic medalist Leon Stukelj is all set to make tracks for the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta.

Three times the gymnast has taken part in the Games - each time winning medals for his country - then the former Yugoslavia and its predecessor states.

This year he'll leave the competition to the younger generation though - instead he'll attend the Atlanta Games as a special guest of the International Olympic Committee.

Leon Stukelj isn't your average collector of trinkets.

These are medals the 97-year-old former gymnast brought home from not one but three different Olympic Games.

At ease in his memento-filled apartment in Maribor in Slovenia, Stukelj proudly displays his victory badges.

First came two golds - for the rings and all-round competition at the 1924 Olympics in Paris at which he represented the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

He also won a gold for the rings and a bronze for the all-round competition in Amsterdam in 1928.

And finally, Stukelj brought home a silver for the rings in Berlin in 1936 - although by then he was winning for the newly-named Yugoslavia.

Alongside the medals are the Olympic certificates, including one bearing the signature of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French founder of the International Olympic Committee.

All in all not bad for someone who competed in the Olympics while studying for a law degree.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian):

"I was on the Olympics three times: 1924 in Paris, 1928 in Amsterdam and in 1936 in Berlin. That was the last time I took part in the competition."

SUPER CAPTION: Leon Stukelj, Olympic medalist

Born in Novo Mesto on 12 November 1898, Stukelj discovered his talent for gymnastics as he watched athletes from the Sokol (Hawk) sports associations, one of the few organisations for youth at the turn of the century.

But he wasn't a full-time gymnast - he graduated from the Law University of Ljubljana in 1924, just weeks before traveling to his first Olympics.

Stukelj may now be nearly 100 years old - but age hasn't slowed him down.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian):

"I am 97 years old, and this November I'll be 98. Every day I do different exercises. I am spending a lot of time outdoor in our garden and in the country."

SUPER CAPTION: Leon Stukelj, Olympic medalist

When he was 38, he quit gymnastics and began working as a judge.

After he retired in 1963, he continued working as an aide to an attorney and wrote a book about his gymnastic career: "My Seven World Championships".

But his full life after the Olympics has in no way lessened his passion for gymnastics.

He still reads books about the sport and never misses a televised competition.

In addition, he strives to keep himself fit.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian):

"I have two rings on my door, so I lift myself from time to time. At the balcony I lift myself, stretch my arms muscles in one direction, and then on the rings I stretch them on the opposite direction."

SUPER CAPTION: Leon Stukelj, Olympic Gold medalist

Stukelj is leaving for Atlanta on 17 July.

He will attend the games as a special guest of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee.

And he hopes that his presence at the event will set a shining example for the younger generation of athletes.

Maribor, Slovenia, 11 July 1996

1. Leon Stukelj is taking boxes with his medals to show press

2. Medals

3. SOUNDBITE Leon Stukelj

4. Poster from Berlin Olympics 1936 on the wall in the Stukelj's room.

5. SOUNDBITE Leon Stukelj

6. Hands.

7. SOUNDBITE Leon Stukelj

8. Sukelj putting the chair below the rings to reach them.

9. Lifting himself on the rings.

10. CU of rings.

11. Statue of gymnast exercising on the rings.

12. Poster on the wall of Olympics in Paris, 1924.

13. Stukelj pointing to the caricature of himself in the younger days exercising on the rings.

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SHOTLIST: Various

Nyaramba, Nyanza Province, Kenya - 1 February, 2016

1. 00:00 Various set-up shots of Kenyan athlete Lilian Mariita cleaning ground outside her house with daughter Lisa

2. 00:28 Tea plantations

3. 00:33 Various of Mariita with daughter in living room

4. 00:40 SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lilian Mariita, athlete:

(Reporter: Let me get that clearly, every time you went for a race she gave you those tablets?)

"Yes when we went for races."

(Reporter: And when you finished the race did she give you anything?)

"When we went for a race she would give me. Even when I ran in that race she gave me three tablets and I took them. I don't know, they look like capsules and inside it looks like this (points to the floor painted with red oxide)."

(Reporter: And now when she was doing that, didn't you ask what the medicine was for?)

"I was asking her and she was saying it's multi-vitamin. All I knew is that when you are injected is when it is bad. Medicines taken orally are okay, it's injections which are bad."

(Reporter: You used to take the medicine because you knew as long you are not injected you are fine?)

"I just knew they were tablets of multi-vitamin, just that, but injections are drugs that would kill me."

5. 02:11 Mariita's uncle explaining to Lilian what the anti-doping agency statement states in their local language of Kisii

6. 02:19 Mariita crying

7. 02:26 Various of Mariita with her daughter

8. 02:36 SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lilian Mariita, athlete:

"I would tell Larisa 'if she knows that this thing you are giving us was bad, now see you have lied to me, because I did not know and I have been banned because of you'."

9. 02:55 Pan from house to Mariita standing with relatives

10. 03:02 SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lilian Mariita, athlete:

"Now I see that because I was not educated they took advantage of my lack of education and that's why they did that."

11. 03:22 Various of Mariita and her daughter holding trophy

Loxley, Alabama, USA - 18 February, 2016

12. 03:35 Set-up of Jynocel Basweti walking in city park

13. 03:40 SOUNDBITE (English) Jynocel Basweti, one of three Kenyan athletes who tested positive for doping while managed by agent Larisa Mikhaylova:

"To me she was giving me some tablets."

14. 03:45 Basweti walking in park

Newport, Kentucky, USA – 25 February, 2016

15. 03:51 Skyline of Cincinnati from bridge in Newport

16. 03:56 Set up shot of agent Larisa Mikhaylova with runners Peter Kemboi and Kennedy Kemei

17. 04:07 SOUNDBITE (English) Larisa Mikhaylova, Lilian Mariita's agent:

(Reporter, off camera: "Did you ever give her (Mariita) anything to take?)

"No. Not, not. All of my runners, they take responsibility their self. They have to take responsibility their self."

18. 04:17 Puzzle picture of Kremlin on wall

19. 04:23 SOUNDBITE (English) Larisa Mikhaylova, Lilian Mariita's agent:

"Right now I'm thinking that this is not Lilian, not Lilian, because I know Lilian very well, she is a very, you know, nice person, but she cannot speak English very well. And I think that this is her relatives."

(Reporter, off camera: "That are telling her...)

"Yes, of course."

20. 04:44 Kenyan runners jogging in street

21. 04:52 SOUNDBITE (English) Larisa Mikhaylova, Lilian Mariita's agent:

"I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid because I know that my runners, they are doing everything is well. Everything is well."

Kaptagat, Louisville, Kentucky, USA – 27 February, 2016

22. 05:02 Various of Anthem 5K race in Louisville ++TYPICAL RACE ENTERED BY MIKHAYLOVA'S RUNNERS, THOUGH NONE WERE IN THIS RACE++

Iten, Rift Valley Province, Kenya - 30 January, 2016

23. 05:24 Set up of athlete Ronald Rutto

24. 05:30 SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Ronald Rutto, athlete:

"The honest truth, you see where I come from, Marakwet, we are very poor people and that is why I went to him (a pharmacist). And he asked me if I wanted a better life and I told him 'yes, I do want a better life.'"

Kapagat, Rift Valley Province - 30 January, 2016

25. 05:58 Various of elite athlete Eliud Kipchoge and other athletes warming up

26. 06:18 SOUNDBITE: (English) Eliud Kipchoge, elite athlete:

"It's really frustrating to hear that people have been caught but all in all, in our group we normally (think), (that) you know, people dope because they need good performance and after you get good performance what will follow? Money, isn't it? But people forget that money cannot be harvested. So if you want to harvest the money, you need to plant the seeds and what are the seeds? The seeds is (are) hard training, working smart. That is not even working hard but working smart."

27. 06:58 Various of Kipchoge and other athletes training

Nairobi, Kenya - 8 March 2016

28. 07:21 Set-up of Sarah Ochwada, international sports lawyer

29. 07:34 SOUNDBITE: (English) Sarah Ochwada, analyst, lecturer and International Sports Lawyer:

"I think when it comes to the exploitation of Kenyan athletes, over the years it seems to be more rampant because between the year 2012 and now we've seen over 40 Kenyan athletes being banned for doping violations. Now, a very small percentage of that is actually what we would consider very high-profile elite athletes; the rest of them are relatively unknown."

30. 08:03 Cutaway of Ochwada

31. 08:10 SOUNDBITE: (English) Sarah Ochwada, analyst, lecturer and International Sports Lawyer:

"The funny thing about Kenyan society is you don't even have to be guilty of a doping violation for society to look at you as a cheat. For so long as you are suspected of doping you become sort of a bad influence or a pariah according to the society around you. Most likely no one will want anything to do with you."

Kaptagat, Rift Valley Province - 30 January, 2016

32. 08:32 Various of Kipchoge and other athletes setting their watches to begin running in darkness

32. 08:42 Kipchoge and other athletes running at dawn

STORYLINE

Kenyan athletes comment on the doping crisis that has enveloped the country's track and field programme.

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

Lillan Mariita's home in the poor, muddy tea-plantation village of Nyaramba in western Kenya is built with winnings from racing on American roads.

Comfortable by village standards, it has sturdy brick walls, new metal roofing, concrete floors, an outhouse, a wood fire for cooking and a small front yard where banana trees and corn grow lustily in the rich, ochre-red soil.

Mariita is one of many second and third-tier Kenyan athletes who competed in races across the globe offering prize money that is powerful bait to the deep wells of poverty and running talent back in Kenya.

Such races attract a workforce of globe-trotting athletes whose methods and honesty now face intense international scrutiny because dozens of them have been busted for doping since Kenya won 11 track and field medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

Mariita was part of a stable of East African athletes in Newport, Kentucky, run by a former elite runner for Russia, Larisa Mikhaylova.

Her runners have won tens of thousands of dollars from smaller races across the American Midwest. But a string of positive drug tests among athletes she worked with put her camp on the radar of anti-doping investigators, who are now looking into her business.

Mariita failed not one but two tests in an eight-month span. Even after Athletics Kenya informed Mikhaylova by email that Mariita was suspended from competition, her agent continued to enter the petite runner for races, winning thousands more dollars before the 27-year-old's second failed test ultimately ended her running career.

Mariita told The Associated Press that Mikhaylova used to give her pills before races, saying "they were vitamins."

"Even when I ran in that race she gave me three tablets and I took them. I don't know, they look like capsules and inside it looks like this," she said, pointing to the red-coloured floor, in an interview with The Associated Press.

After her second failed drug test last July, following a race in Kentucky, Mariita was banned from competition for 8 years. That is the longest punishment of any of the 38 Kenyan runners banned for doping violations since the London Olympics.

With little education and no income from races, Mariita sees no future in her village for her and Lisa, her daughter who was born in the United States.

The two-year-old's father is Jynocel Basweti, another Kenyan runner who worked with the Russian agent. He also tested positive for banned drugs. He has stopped racing since serving his two-year ban.

Basweti told AP that Mikhaylova "was giving me some tablets."

Speaking to AP, Mikhaylova emphatically denied ever giving drugs to athletes.

Mikhaylova boards runners from Kenya and Ethiopia in a two-story house in a working-class neighbourhood in Newport, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. It has a picture of the Kremlin hanging over the fireplace in the living room.

She described herself as nothing more than a service provider for East African athletes far from home, identifying and entering them in races she thinks they can win and looking after their other daily needs, in exchange for her 15-percent cut.

She told the Associated Press that she never gave pills to Mariita.

"All my runners, they take responsibility for their selves. They have to take responsibility for their selves," Mikhaylova said.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which governs the sport, says it is looking into Mikhaylova's camp, working together with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

In the United States, some race directors are also taking precautions. Without waiting for the outcome of the IAAF probe, some say they are already giving Mikhaylova's athletes a wide berth.

When Mikhaylova emailed race organisers in Indianapolis last May to enter two athletes for their Monumental Mile, they responded with a copy of their new anti-doping policy. It specifies that athletes won't be eligible for prize money if they work with agents who have had two or more runners banned.

Many of Kenya's runners busted for doping were largely unknown journeymen and women, like Mariita, who pound out a living from races around the world, chasing cash prizes that can lift families out of poverty in Africa.

The majority took banned substances close enough to races for traces to still be detectable when they competed - an amateur mistake that former track stars like Marion Jones and others with access to savvy coaches and doctors, never made.

Ronald Rutto fits this bill. He was the world junior steeplechase champion in 2004.

But he tested positive in 2012 for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO at a race in Austria and was banned. He says he got an injection from a Kenyan pharmacist before he left for that overseas race, and that his life has gone downhill since.

His and Mariita's stories represent the underbelly of the top-to-bottom doping crisis in Kenya's thriving but ill-regulated running industry.

Some Kenyan athletes fear their country might be barred from international competition, like Russia, if the problem isn't solved. The World Anti-Doping Agency has given Kenya until 5 April to fall in line with global anti-doping rules.

World-beating athletes like Eliud Kipchoge are frustrated by the damage that doping is doing to Kenya's reputation.

He and other elite runners train and live together in Spartan conditions in their high-altitude camp in western Kenya, even taking turns with daily chores like mucking out toilets and doing the washing up. They say they are regularly drug tested.

Kipchoge, who has won the London, Berlin and Chicago marathons, thinks dopers are being short-sighted in pursuit of fame and fortune.

"People forget that money cannot be harvested," he says. "If you want to harvest the money, you need to plant the seeds. And what are the seeds? The seeds are hard training, working smart."

Dust clings to his eyelashes and hairs on his legs during a punishing training run through the forest that he and dozens of other athletes from separate training camps meet up for before dawn. By training together, the runners spur each other on.

They also party together before major competitions, buying sodas and roasting a sheep in a celebratory send-off. They are already planning their next one: before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY

++PLEASE USE UPDATED SCRIPT - THE IAAF HAS CONFIRMED TWO ADDITIONAL DOPING CASES, LIFTING THE TOTAL NUMBER OF KENYANS BANNED SINCE THE LONDON GAMES FROM 38 TO 40++

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Nyaramba, Nyanza Province, Kenya - 1 February, 2016

1. Various set-up shots of Kenyan athlete Lilian Mariita cleaning ground outside her house with daughter Lisa

2. Tea plantations

3. Various of Mariita with daughter in living room

4. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lilian Mariita, athlete:

(Reporter: Let me get that clearly, every time you went for a race she gave you those tablets?)

"Yes when we went for races."

(Reporter: And when you finished the race did she give you anything?)

"When we went for a race she would give me. Even when I ran in that race she gave me three tablets and I took them. I don't know, they look like capsules and inside it looks like this (points to the floor painted with red oxide)."

(Reporter: And now when she was doing that, didn't you ask what the medicine was for?)

"I was asking her and she was saying it's multi-vitamin. All I knew is that when you are injected is when it is bad. Medicines taken orally are okay, it's injections which are bad."

(Reporter: You used to take the medicine because you knew as long you are not injected you are fine?)

"I just knew they were tablets of multi-vitamin, just that, but injections are drugs that would kill me."

5. Mariita's uncle explaining to Lilian what the anti-doping agency statement states in their local language of Kisii

6. Mariita crying

7. Various of Mariita with her daughter

8. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lilian Mariita, athlete:

"I would tell Larisa 'if she knows that this thing you are giving us was bad, now see you have lied to me, because I did not know and I have been banned because of you'."

9. Pan from house to Mariita standing with relatives

10. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lilian Mariita, athlete:

"Now I see that because I was not educated they took advantage of my lack of education and that's why they did that."

11. Various of Mariita and her daughter holding trophy

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Loxley, Alabama - 18 February, 2016

12. Set-up of Jynocel Basweti walking in city park

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jynocel Basweti, one of three Kenyan athletes who tested positive for doping while managed by agent Larisa Mikhaylova:

"To me she was giving me some tablets."

14. Basweti walking in park

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Newport, Kentucky – 25 February, 2016

15. Skyline of Cincinnati from bridge in Newport

16. Set up shot of agent Larisa Mikhaylova with runners Peter Kemboi and Kennedy Kemei

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Larisa Mikhaylova, Lilian Mariita's agent:

(Reporter, off camera: "Did you ever give her (Mariita) anything to take?)

"No. Not, not. All of my runners, they take responsibility their self. They have to take responsibility their self."

18. Puzzle picture of Kremlin on wall

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Larisa Mikhaylova, Lilian Mariita's agent:

"Right now I'm thinking that this is not Lilian, not Lilian, because I know Lilian very well, she is a very, you know, nice person, but she cannot speak English very well. And I think that this is her relatives."

(Reporter, off camera: "That are telling her...)

"Yes, of course."

20. Kenyan runners jogging in street

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Larisa Mikhaylova, Lilian Mariita's agent:

"I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid because I know that my runners, they are doing everything is well. Everything is well."

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Kaptagat, Louisville, Kentucky – 27 February, 2016

22. Various of Anthem 5K race in Louisville ++TYPICAL RACE ENTERED BY MIKHAYLOVA'S RUNNERS, THOUGH NONE WERE IN THIS RACE++

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Iten, Rift Valley Province, Kenya - 30 January, 2016

23. Set up of athlete Ronald Rutto

24. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Ronald Rutto, athlete:

"The honest truth, you see where I come from, Marakwet, we are very poor people and that is why I went to him (a pharmacist). And he asked me if I wanted a better life and I told him 'yes, I do want a better life.'"

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Kapagat, Rift Valley Province - 30 January, 2016

25. Various of elite athlete Eliud Kipchoge and other athletes warming up

26. SOUNDBITE: (English) Eliud Kipchoge, elite athlete:

"It's really frustrating to hear that people have been caught but all in all, in our group we normally (think), (that) you know, people dope because they need good performance and after you get good performance what will follow? Money, isn't it? But people forget that money cannot be harvested. So if you want to harvest the money, you need to plant the seeds and what are the seeds? The seeds is (are) hard training, working smart. That is not even working hard but working smart."

27. Various of Kipchoge and other athletes training

28. Kipchoge and athletes training

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Nairobi, Kenya - 8 March 2016

29. Set-up of Sarah Ochwada, international sports lawyer

30. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sarah Ochwada, analyst, lecturer and International Sports Lawyer:

"I think when it comes to the exploitation of Kenyan athletes, over the years it seems to be more rampant because between the year 2012 and now we've seen over 40 Kenyan athletes being banned for doping violations. Now, a very small percentage of that is actually what we would consider very high-profile elite athletes; the rest of them are relatively unknown."

31. Cutaway of Ochwada

32. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sarah Ochwada, analyst, lecturer and International Sports Lawyer:

"The funny thing about Kenyan society is you don't even have to be guilty of a doping violation for society to look at you as a cheat. For so long as you are suspected of doping you become sort of a bad influence or a pariah according to the society around you. Most likely no one will want anything to do with you."

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Kaptagat, Rift Valley Province - 30 January, 2016

33. Various of Kipchoge and other athletes setting their watches to begin running in darkness

34. Kipchoge and other athletes running at dawn

STORYLINE:

Lillan Mariita's home in the poor, muddy tea-plantation village of Nyaramba in western Kenya is built with winnings from racing on American roads.

Comfortable by village standards, it has sturdy brick walls, new metal roofing, concrete floors, an outhouse, a wood fire for cooking and a small front yard where banana trees and corn grow lustily in the rich, ochre-red soil.

Mariita is one of many second and third-tier Kenyan athletes who competed in races across the globe offering prize money that is powerful bait to the deep wells of poverty and running talent back in Kenya.

Such races attract a workforce of globe-trotting athletes whose methods and honesty now face intense international scrutiny because dozens of them have been busted for doping since Kenya won 11 track and field medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

Mariita was part of a stable of East African athletes in Newport, Kentucky, run by a former elite runner for Russia, Larisa Mikhaylova.

Her runners have won tens of thousands of dollars from smaller races across the American Midwest. But a string of positive drug tests among athletes she worked with put her camp on the radar of anti-doping investigators, who are now looking into her business.

Mariita failed not one but two tests in an eight-month span. Even after Athletics Kenya informed Mikhaylova by email that Mariita was suspended from competition, her agent continued to enter the petite runner for races, winning thousands more dollars before the 27-year-old's second failed test ultimately ended her running career.

Mariita told The Associated Press that Mikhaylova used to give her pills before races, saying "they were vitamins."

"Even when I ran in that race she gave me three tablets and I took them. I don't know, they look like capsules and inside it looks like this," she said, pointing to the red-colored floor, in an interview with The Associated Press.

After her second failed drug test last July, following a race in Kentucky, Mariita was banned from competition for 8 years. That is the longest punishment of any of the 40 Kenyan runners banned for doping violations since the London Olympics.

With little education and no income from races, Mariita sees no future in her village for her and Lisa, her daughter who was born in the United States.

The two-year-old's father is Jynocel Basweti, another Kenyan runner who worked with the Russian agent. He also tested positive for banned drugs. He has stopped racing since serving his two-year ban.

Basweti told AP that Mikhaylova "was giving me some tablets."

Speaking to AP, Mikhaylova emphatically denied ever giving drugs to athletes.

Mikhaylova boards runners from Kenya and Ethiopia in a two-story house in a working-class neighbourhood in Newport, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. It has a picture of the Kremlin hanging over the fireplace in the living room.

She described herself as nothing more than a service provider for East African athletes far from home, identifying and entering them in races she thinks they can win and looking after their other daily needs, in exchange for her 15-percent cut.

She told the Associated Press that she never gave pills to Mariita.

"All my runners, they take responsibility for their selves. They have to take responsibility for their selves," Mikhaylova said.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which governs the sport, says it is looking into Mikhaylova's camp, working together with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

In the United States, some race directors are also taking precautions. Without waiting for the outcome of the IAAF probe, some say they are already giving Mikhaylova's athletes a wide berth.

When Mikhaylova emailed race organisers in Indianapolis last May to enter two athletes for their Monumental Mile, they responded with a copy of their new anti-doping policy. It specifies that athletes won't be eligible for prize money if they work with agents who have had two or more runners banned.

Many of Kenya's runners busted for doping were largely unknown journeymen and women, like Mariita, who pound out a living from races around the world, chasing cash prizes that can lift families out of poverty in Africa.

The majority took banned substances close enough to races for traces to still be detectable when they competed - an amateur mistake that former track stars like Marion Jones and others with access to savvy coaches and doctors, never made.

Ronald Rutto fits this bill. He was the world junior steeplechase champion in 2004.

But he tested positive in 2012 for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO at a race in Austria and was banned. He says he got an injection from a Kenyan pharmacist before he left for that overseas race, and that his life has gone downhill since.

His and Mariita's stories represent the underbelly of the top-to-bottom doping crisis in Kenya's thriving but ill-regulated running industry.

Some Kenyan athletes fear their country might be barred from international competition, like Russia, if the problem isn't solved. The World Anti-Doping Agency has given Kenya until 5 April to fall in line with global anti-doping rules.

World-beating athletes like Eliud Kipchoge are frustrated by the damage that doping is doing to Kenya's reputation.

He and other elite runners train and live together in Spartan conditions in their high-altitude camp in western Kenya, even taking turns with daily chores like mucking out toilets and doing the washing up. They say they are regularly drug tested.

Kipchoge, who has won the London, Berlin and Chicago marathons, thinks dopers are being short-sighted in pursuit of fame and fortune.

"People forget that money cannot be harvested," he says. "If you want to harvest the money, you need to plant the seeds. And what are the seeds? The seeds are hard training, working smart."

Dust clings to his eyelashes and hairs on his legs during a punishing training run through the forest that he and dozens of other athletes from separate training camps meet up for before dawn. By training together, the runners spur each other on.

They also party together before major competitions, buying sodas and roasting a sheep in a celebratory send-off. They are already planning their next one: before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.

===========================================================

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SHOTLIST:

Addis Ababa - Recent

1. Runner Haile Gebrselassie stretching in gym

2. Various of Haile Gebrselassie training

3. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Haile Gebreselassie, Ethiopian Olympic distance runner:

"I give advice to younger Ethiopian athletes who are aiming to be successful. We are the role models for the younger athletes. I make them follow training schedules, like mine, so that one day they can achieve as much as I have. I'd do anything to help them. If they ask me, I'll always give them advice. It's an Ethiopian tradition to help people, it's an obligation even - one that came from long ago."

4. Various of Haile Gebrselassie (front right with blue and white t-shirt) and training partners running

Near Sandafa - Recent

5. Various of countryside where Haile Gebrselassie trains

6. Various of Haile Gebrselassie stretching with young runners

7. Wide of younger athletes including Tariku Aboset Bukan (professional runner in red top) running towards camera

8. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Tariku Aboset Bukan, professional marathon runner:

"It's very interesting to train with such a famous man. Other well-known athletes don't want to train with junior athletes like me. My performance has improved a lot since I started training with Haile, it improves every day in fact. In the future, I want to win marathons and break world records like him."

Addis Ababa - Recent

9. Wide of Haile Gebrselassie sitting at desk

10. Gebrselassie on mobile phone

11. Close up of Haile Gebrselassie on mobile phone

12. Wide exterior of Haile Gebrselassie's gym in Addis Ababa

13. Close up of sign for Haile Gebrselassie's gym 'Alem Fitness Center'

14. Close up of sign outside gym

15. Wide of building owned by Haile Gebrselassie

16. Wide of 'Alem Cinema' owned by Haile Gebrselassie

17. Close up of poster advertising film at cinema

Bahar Dar, northern Ethiopia - Recent

18. Wide of school owned by Haile Gebrselassie

19. Plaque dedicated to Haile Gebrselassie on wall of school

20. Close up of plaque dedicated to Haile Gebrselassie on wall of school

21. Various of schoolchildren sitting in classroom

22. School teacher conducting lesson

23. Wide of pupil Tizazu Tazebew sitting at desk in classroom

24. Tizazu Tazebew at desk

25. Close up Tizazu Tazebew's hands writing in book

26. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Tizazu Tazebew, pupil at Haile Gebrselassie's school:

"If Haile wasn't giving me this education for free, I would be working - employed as a daily labourer and I would use half my money to buy food and the other half I would try to pay for evening school. It's thanks only to him that I'm getting a good education."

27. Wide of children in classroom

Addis Ababa - Recent

28. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Haile Gebreselassie, Ethiopian Olympic distance runner:

"When I opened the schools, I didn't do it to make money. I opened it for satisfaction, the satisfaction in seeing children get an education. What's most rewarding is when I actually visit the schools and spend time with the kids, it's wonderful. When you own a school, the profits don't come immediately, they come when the children grow up and become useful to their country. This is a kind of satisfaction that money just can't buy."

29. Gebreselassie walking away from camera (on left in black and white) after training

30. SOUNDBITE (Amharic) Haile Gebreselassie, Ethiopian Olympic distance runner:

"My aim in the next two to three years is to be an Olympic champion and break the world record in the marathon. If God's with me, you never know - maybe I will do it."

31. Gebreselassie in gym talking to colleagues

32. Close up of Gebreselassie

33. Photograph in gym of Haile Gebrselassie winning race

34. Wide of Haile Gebrselassie (third from front in blue and white t-shirt) running on road with other athletes

35. Gebrselassie and other athletes running up hill on road away from camera

36. Various of banner in Meskel Square advertising 'Great Ethiopian Run'

LEAD IN :

Twenty-five thousand people are expected to take part in the 'Great Ethiopian Run' held in Addis Ababa on 26 November 2006.

The 10 kilometre event is organised every year by the country's double Olympic champion (10-thousand metres) Haile Gebrselassie - regarded as the greatest long distance runner in history.

But the genius of the track won't be competing in the race.

As his age increases, so do his running distances and he's now focussing on marathons.

As well as running Gebreselassie still has time to help the next generation of Ethiopian athletes prepare to break as many records as he has.

STORYLINE :

These legs are worth millions of dollars, and they belong to professional runner Haile Gebrselassie.

He has won two Olympic gold medals, broken 22 records, is four times outdoor world champion, five times indoor champion and in 1998 won a share of one million US dollars in the Golden League jackpot.

Born in the province of Arsi in central Ethiopia in 1973, Gebrselassie puts his success down to his daily 20 kilometre run to and from school - at altitudes of more than 2,500 metres.

His career as a professional athlete began at just 15 years old.

Gebrselassie has achieved most of his success at the five thousand and ten thousand metres distances.

Eighteen years later, he's hung up his track-shoes to focus on marathons.

He says he's too old to compete with the youngsters at short distances.

As Gebrselassie approaches 34 years of age, he has realised that he cannot go on forever.

Gebrselassie now spends his time running several businesses and mentoring the next generation of Ethiopian runners.

He says he now gives advice to younger Ethiopian athletes who are aiming for success.

Gebreselassie is proving to be just as successful at long distances runs and marathons as Olympic events.

In September 2006 he won more than $100,000 USD when he became the first Ethiopian to win the Berlin marathon.

Gebreselassie's training routine is intense as he runs up to 30 kilometres a day.

Distance runners have to have the drive and determination to succeed.

For Haile it's an obsession that's taken over his life.

Tariku Aboset Bukan is a young professional marathon runner.

He says his performance has improved since his training sessions with Haile Gebrselassie.

Running has made Haile Gebrselassie a hero not only in Ethiopia. Roads have been named after him and documentaries made about him worldwide.

Gebreselassie is now a successful businessman.

He owns a gym, a construction firm, hotels, a cinema, office buildings and has opened two private schools.

Most of the children in this school in the northern city of Bahar Dar must pay for their education.

There are many who cannot afford an education.

Tizazu Tazebew lost both his parents and says without Gebreselassie's support would not be able to afford an education.

Gebreselassie says when he opened the schools, he didn't do it to make money but to give children a quality education.

Despite owning numerous businesses, Haile's priority is still running.

He's aiming to break more world records at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and even jokes about competing in London's 2012 Olympics.

Gebreselassie says his aim in the next two to three years is to be an Olympic champion and break the world record in the marathon.

His next race is the Fukuoka marathon in Japan on the third of December of this year.

In Paris, seven leading Soviet dissident exiles, on 22 january, supported US President Jimmy Carter's proposals to boycott the Moscow olympics, saying if they take place, it will be like Hitler's exploitations of the 1936 games in Berlin.

The group which included physicist Alexander Ginzburg, Ukranian religious dissident Edward Kuznetzov and Vladimir Bukovsky who was exchanged for a Chilean Communist in 1976, told a news conference that the boycott and Carter's embargo of grain shipments would further the cause of human rights. The seven are members of a group calling itself "Committee for the Rights of Man, Moscow 1980". They said the Soviet Union has prepared for the olympics by arresting dissidents. They described the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and suppression of human rights as two sides of the same coin. The President of the committee, Marek Halter, said that even if the boycott of the olympics succeeds, the fight for human rights will by no means be over. He went on to say, "we take this opportunity to appeal to all the governments in the world for total amnesty for all prisoners of conscience." His statement was followed by one in Russian from Bukovsky, who said "if the boycott is effective - the Russians will be forced to tell the truth....they can lie about grain..they can lie about the tanks in Prague and Afghanistan, saying they are just going for a stroll - but how can they lie about an empty stadium on the day of the olympics?"

1. ms poster on wall: (French): "Committee for the Rights of Man, Moscow 1980", tilt down to members of the dissident group at table, Marek Halter, SOUNDBITE: (French), delivers statement...

2. cutaways to press

3. ms Vladimir Bukovsky, SOUNDBITE: (Russian), delivers statement, interpreter translates into French...

4. ms Edward Kuznetzov, SOUNDBITE: (Russian), delivers statement, interpreter translates into French..., pan to Halter, opens up questions from the press...

5. ms L. Puouchtch, SOUNDBITE: (Russian), delivers statement, interpreter translates into French, pan to Vladimir Bukovsky, SOUNDBITE: (Russian), delivers statement, interpreter translates into French...

6. cutaway to poster on wall with cartoon image, tilt down to ls dissidents at table

7. cutaway to press

8. member of audience, SOUNDBITE: (French) makes statement

9. Halter, SOUNDBITE: (French), delivers statement...

10. ms N. Gorbanevskaya, SOUNDBITE: (French) delivers statement

Film: Rev - Sound: Mag/SOF - Colour - NYFilm: c0066590 - LN Number: LN17613 - Available in HD

Obituaries: Ronald Reagan

In June, the former US president Ronald Reagan died in California after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease, aged 93. Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life." At the age of 69, Reagan, a former movie star and Governor of California, was the oldest man ever elected president when he was beat the incumbent president Jimmy Carter in 1980. Four years later he was re-elected by an even greater margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states. Reagan was accorded a full formal funeral, lying in state in at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC, where world leaders visited to pay their respects. Among the mourners was the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, whose dealing with President Reagan over arms control led to the break up of the Soviet Union. After lying in state, the body of the former president was interred in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

POOL

FILE: Washington, DC - 20 January 1981

Ronald Reagan being sworn-in in as US president

APTN

FILE: Washington, DC - unknown date

US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev signing treaty

UPSOUND (English) Ronald Reagan, US President:

"This is the signing of the INF Treaty. It means that for the first time the Soviet Union agreed to destroy weapons they have already had."

APTN

FILE: Washington, DC - unknown date

Ronald and Nancy return to White House after trip away

APTN

Hollywood, California - 5 June 2004

Close shot of star Ronald Reagan star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame"

APTN

Santa Monica, California - 5 June 2004

Wide shot US flag lowered to half-mast at funeral home

POOL

Washington DC - 10 June 2004

Various shots of US President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush stopping beside coffin

High shot of coffin in the Capitol Rotunda

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev stands before coffin - bows head and leaves

POOL

Santa Monica - 7 June 2004

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan watching ceremony

Coffin being put into hearse

APTN

Point Mugu Naval Air Base, California - 11 June 2004

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan touching coffin and putting her head down on it

Sunset over coffin

Obituaries: Peter Ustinov

Sir Peter Ustinov, the Oscar-winning actor who had earned a reputation for his humanitarian work at the UN, died in Switzerland in March at the age of 82, from heart failure. Born in London on April 16, 1921, the only son of a Russian artist mother and a journalist father, Ustinov claimed also to have Swiss, Ethiopian, Italian and French blood. In a career lasting some 60 years, Ustinov appeared in roles ranging from Emperor Nero to Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He won Academy Awards for supporting actor in the films ''Spartacus'' and ''Topkapi'' in the 1960s. Ustinov faced criticism in the early 1990s for his controversial views on the emergence of Russia from Communist rule, and for his unstinting support for Mikhail Gorbachev. His long service as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF led UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to joke that Ustinov was the man to take over from him. Ustinov's son, Igor, said his father had viewed his mortality with humour - when asked what he would like to see inscribed on his tombstone, Ustinov had replied: "Keep off the grass."

APTN

FILE: Berlin, Germany - 16 April 1996

Peter Ustinov walks towards seats

Peter Ustinov imitating cello player

Peter Ustinov standing at presser with hippopotamus

Obituaries: Henri Cartier-Bresson

In August the legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson died in southeastern France at the age of 95. Cartier-Bresson's work had inspired generations of photographers. He was declared a French national treasure, although he was famously averse to having his own picture taken or to giving interviews. Whether recording the funeral of Mahatma Gandhi in India or Henri Matisse at home, Cartier-Bresson sought to render the feeling of the moment with his distinctive classical style and penchant for geometrical composition. "In whatever one does, there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart," he once said in a rare interview. "With the one eye that is closed, one looks within, with the other eye that is open, one looks without." While most of his international fame was generated from worldwide exhibitions and glossy high-profile magazines, Cartier-Bresson gained recognition from two documentary films he made about medical aid to Republican loyalists fighting Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, and about French prisoners of war returning home at the end of World War II.

APTN

FILE: Date and location unknown

Pull out from photograph to Henri Cartier-Bresson in profile

Pull out from Cartier-Bresson photograph to a set-up shot of the photographer

Still shot of photograph of two men peeping through a wall

Still shot of photograph of Henri Matisse clutching a dove

Obituaries: Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" films whose near-fatal riding accident in 1995 turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died of heart failure October, aged 52. Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis, when he slipped into a coma and died, hospital sources said. Reeve broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and to move an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues. Reeve's athletic, 6-foot-4-inch (1.93-meter) frame and love of adventure made him a natural, if largely unknown, choice for the title role in the first "Superman" film in 1978. Although he reprised the role three times, Reeve often worried about being typecast as an action hero. And though he owed his fame to it, Reeve made a concerted effort to, as he often put it, "escape the cape."

APTN

Los Angeles, California - 18 April 1997

Actor Christopher Reeve visiting Walk of Fame in wheelchair

Reeve's son's hand on his shoulder

Christopher Reeve and son

THE OLYMPICS

The Olympic Games

The Olympic Flame for the 2004 games in Athens was at the site of ancient Olympia in March, in a ceremony evoking Greek religious rites. The burning torch was carried by a total of 3600 people in 27 countries as it was transported around the world in the lead-up to the games. As the date of the games approached, there were concerns about the preparedness of the Olympic facilities in Athens. But the games opened on schedule in August in a lavish ceremony evoking thousands of years of Greek culture.

ERT Pool

Ancient Olympia - 25 March 2004

Wide shot of torch-lighting ceremony with women dressed as priestesses

Various shots of priestess lights first torchbearer's torch

APTN

Athens - 8 January 2004

Various shots of stadium from outside showing construction in foreground

Various shots of the stadium and construction of roof

APTN

Athens Olympic Stadium - 13 August 2004

Various shots of fireworks at opening ceremony

Drug doping scandals plagued the Athens games from the very outset. A before the opening ceremony, the star Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou missed a scheduled drug test after they claimed they had been injured in a motorcycle accident. The two sprinters, who had good chances to win medals for Greece, announced they were pulling-out of the games after the furore over the missed drug test.

APTN

Athens - 13 August 2004

Close-up of newspaper with Kenteris and Thanou on front page with headline reading "Kenteris and Thanou's participation in the games is hanging on a string"

The US Olympic team suspended sprinter Torri Edwards for testing positive for the banned stimulant nikethamide. Edwards had been expected to compete with a strong chance in the 100 metres and 200 metres races. More than 20 weightlifters from several countries were suspended for flunking drug tests they took before the Olympics. The news was welcomed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which said that such systematic pre-Games testing helped in the fight against doping. The Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis was stripped of his bronze medal expelled from the Olympics, the first athlete at the Athens Games to lose a medal because of a failed drug test. The Hungarian hammer throw champion, Adrian Annus, was stripped of his gold medal for failing to take a follow-up drug test, although he had passed a drug test immediately after winning the medal on 22 August.

APTN

Crete - 12 August 2004

Banned sprinter Torri Edwards inside hotel foyer with friend

AP Photos

FILE: Moldova - unknown date

PHOTO of banned weightlifter Viktor Chislean of Moldova

APTN

Athens, 22 August 2004

Still shot of Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis with bronze medal

AP Photos

Athens - 22 August 2004

Hungary's Adrian Annus salutes the crowd, after winning the gold medal in the hammer throw

APTN

Athens - 16 August 2004

Olympic flag outside hotel