But many will be found out, and their cheating – often unwitting – will reverberate around the world.However shocking it may seem that the Communist regime had sent an army of doped-up beefcakes into battle against the decadent West, the real scandal is yet to emerge. For the cadre who stand accused of relying on drugs to make the GDR great were immediately hired by the former enemy, and have been minting gold for their new masters ever since. That those unbeatable heptathletes did not get their biceps just from the weight training was already obvious, but the investigation has revealed far more widespread and systematic doping than was ever suspected. At the latest count, some 2,000 athletes had at one time been on performance-enhancing drugs.When the trials are over, record books may have to be erased. The prosecutors will try to protect the identities of the victims – the athletes who simply could not lose against their feeble Western opponents. Four swimming coaches and two doctors stand accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on athletes, but this is only the beginning. A team of 60 special prosecutors has spent the past few years sifting through captured files of the Stasi secret police.

Their list of suspects currently runs to 680 names.
They are the coaches, doctors, physios and club officials who had turned East Germany into the most prolific medal-winning machine in history. Nearly a decade after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the first indictments are ready, and the vanguard of those who relied on drugs to enhance sporting achievement will go on trial in the fortress-like courthouse of Berlin’s Moabit district. THE spotlight is about to fall on the dark secrets of East Germany’s phenomenal sporting achievements. “But it would be a chance for people from the two cities who have not watched the two clubs regularly to enjoy Wembley.”Sheffield are likely to be without their centre, Keith Senior, for the semi-final. Senior has been told that he must appear before the disciplinary committee on Thursday, accused of punching Castleford’s Barrie-Jon Mather during their victory there in the last round.The incident was placed on report, because the officials could not be certain of the culprit’s identity. Now a one-match ban would put Senior out of the semi, while a more lengthy ban would mean missing Wembley.Oldham are to lodge a formal protest with the League about Bramley’s unique twinning arrangement with Super League’s Leeds, claiming the arrangement affords an “unfair advantage” over other Second Division clubs.SILK CUT CHALLENGE CUP Semi-final draw: Sheffield v Salford; London v Wigan Ties to be played on 28 and 29 March..

THE two sides from outside the game’s heartland, the Sheffield Eagles and London Broncos, have been drawn apart in the semi-finals of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup, keeping alive the possibility of the most unfamiliar looking final in Wembley history. Sheffield will meet Salford in one semi, with London facing the favourites, Wigan, in the other. Wigan’s victory over St Helens in the last round has started a rush for Wembley tickets, but the League is confident that even a final between two clubs without long tradition or large fan bases would be a major draw.
“We would have to work a little harder,” a League spokesman, Peter Rowe, said. End of experiment.For everybody involved, the recent years have always been demanding, never less than exhausting and often traumatic. The saving grace, however, has been that the newspapers have never once fallen short of the aspiration enunciated by their titles – to be independent.

To my knowledge, no shareholder has ever tried to influence the reporting of the news or the opinions expressed I believe this will remain the case. The new owner is the largest publisher of broadsheet newspapers in the world, employing more than 2,000 journalists in Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. As well as integrity, it brings two boons, stability and resources. That is why I look forward with optimism while regretting the dream unrealised.. The Independent and the Independent on Sunday have fallen in with the rest of Fleet Street in having a single owner. Until finally Mirror Group, seeing that its share price appeared adversely affected by its holding in Newspaper Publishing, whose newspapers are so different in style to its own, decided to sell its holding to the Irish group, which took the opportunity to buy out the other shareholders, including El Pais.