Times Sport editor John Hutchins offers his personal opinion on the events, topics and personalities in the world of sport.

THE other evening I enjoyed being in the audience of an excellent discussion held at the Plymouth Athenaeum.

It was led by a panel of experts — former GB international sprinter Katherine Endacott, from Plymouth; University of St Mark and St John’s, Plymouth, head of sport Lance Doggart and sports writer and author Bill Richards, from Tavistock.

The panellists talked of the increasing influence of of science and technology in modern sports, outlining its positives and negatives.

When it comes to performance enhancement Lance Doggart said at the very top level of competition the difference between success and second place was miniscule.

In swimming for example, the introduction of shark skin made swim suits, about eight years ago, gave their wearers low drag in the water and so a measured advantage of tenths of a second over the their competitors before they were banned. But is that any different from tennis or golf players playing with the latest racket or clubs, which can effect the distance, spin or direction of the ball?

With sport events being beamed live all over the world, competition, standards and the rewards are even more higher than ever and so science is increasingly used to improve individual and team performances. Of course, this can lead to the temptation of using drugs to enhance performance,

But Katherine Endacott, who won gold and silver sprint medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, spoke of her frustration of competing against those who did use such stimuli.

She said that she depended on being prepared physically combined with mental strength. Katherine told of the ‘edge’ she developed psychologically, a growth in confidence of her abilities, to a point where she had a period where she consecutively beat personal records each time she raced.

The role and the technology in sports has also changed considerably for those reporting or broadcasting.

Bill Richards said he did not envy the modern-media football reporter, who not only covered the match for their newspaper but also had to feed other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. ‘It’s amazing they have any time to watch the match with all that to contend with,’ quipped Bill.