SOME of us may be suffering something close to withdrawal symptoms following the end of the Olympics - although not long until we have the Paralympics.

We behold sporting activities we may only barely have been aware existed, at least in the particular format showcased, but are glued to our television sets willing on yet more of our athletes.

At school I enjoyed sport, particularly athletics, and captained our cross-country team. Our first fixture of each season, which if only for that reason I recall as being particularly gruelling, was always the Chepstow Relays.

In my adult life my sporting activity has been more intermittent, but I have managed to complete the London marathon twice in a bit less than three and a half hours.

I now feel just an extraordinary sense of pride in the achievement of our athletes and the teams behind them. I painfully recall past disappointments, most notably the single gold medal Great Britain brought home from Atlanta in 1996, and so find our degree of success in Rio almost unbelievable.

The haul of medals won by Welsh athletes alone, ten medals including four gold, up from seven medals in London 2012, is close to what used to be normal for Great Britain as a whole.

The achievement of British athletes in bringing home 67 medals including 27 gold is simply staggering, better than London 2012 and second in the medals table, ahead of China and behind only the USA.

I am not sure I have every previously praised John Major or the National Lottery. However on this occasion, credit to them for the funding which was key to our athletes' success.

Athletes who can train full-time have an incomparably better chance of winning Olympic medals than athletes who need to support themselves by holding down a job.

Our sporting funders have also been extremely disciplined (and at times ruthless) in putting money where it is most likely to return Olympic medals.

We are lucky to have some really impressive sporting facilities in our area, including the velodrome in Newport and the Cardiff International Sports Village.

As the International Sports Village is close to the National Assembly and has a 50 metre swimming pool, I now intend to make good use of as it and try to get back some sort of fitness. I hope others will also be inspired by our athletes to take up some sport.