Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3. The old Ian Dury and the Blockheads classic just came into my head this week, and I'm glad, because it has subliminally replaced a very annoying French pop song involving whistling which I didn't turn off quickly enough while driving recently.

But enough of my personal torment.

"18-wheeler Scammells, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats..."

Sorry, just had to run a few of those Dury lyrics past you there. They don't make 'em like that any more! And I'm not referring to Scammell lorries, although probably they do make 'em like that still.

Anyway, what I thought was....oh Hell, let's say it with lyrics while we're at it...

The late, lamented Ian Dury ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

"...if this ever changing world in which we're living

Makes you give in and cry..."

Thank you Paul McCartney and Live and Let Die.

So yes, if this ever changing world is oppressing just a little right now, what with all the news and that, I thought perhaps a little tonic from the realms of sport might be in order, so hereby commend to your attention, shamelessly, three Reasons To Be Cheerful which have emerged in the space of the last week.

Reason to be Cheerful, Part 1.

In Saturday's Abu Dhabi triathlon, held on the Formula 1 Yas Marina Circuit, British brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, respectively gold and bronze medallists at the London 2012 Games, decided to cross the line together arm-in-arm as they set a new course record, completing the 1.5 kilometre swim, 100km bike ride and 10km run in 3 hours 12min 21sec. Their nearest challenger was more than four minutes behind.

How much of an "aah" factor is that?

Takes you right back to the first London Marathon in 1981, when Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen decided to do the same thing at the finish.

As far as the Yorkshire brothers are concerned, however, sharing the spoils of victory is something of a familiar sensation.

"We have finished like that lots of times," said Jonathan the younger. "In domestic races we have. Once in 2011 in Madrid in one of the World Series races we did it for the first time.

"Alistair dropped me that time and then waited for me. So we've done it a few times."

Did you hear that, Mr Vince "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing" Lombardi?

Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 2. It has been reported that researchers have developed a new way to detect some performance-enhancing drugs which is up to a thousand times more sensitive than current tests, and which can also cover a far longer history of detection.

Research presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society has offered evidence of a new process for detecting stimulants, steroids, alcohol and depressants in tiny concentrations, and with a far greater historical depth.

Chemists at the University of Texas in Arlington believe they have developed a method - Paired Ion Electrospray Ionisation - that builds on existing mass spectrometry techniques to identify metabolites obtained from urine samples which have previously been too small for detection.

"It makes them much more detectable," Dr Daniel Armstrong, who led the research team, said.

"We're talking about parts per trillion, sub-parts per trillion - and the amazing thing is that it is so simple.

"We listed our sensitivity versus everything we found in the literature thus far, and that's where we got this 10-1,000 times more sensitive than anything else recorded, depending on the drug you are talking about."

In the past, cheating athletes have worked on calculations of how long offending substances will remain in their body in order to avoid being caught. Armstrong claims the new method would make this much more difficult.

"With steroids, it's about two orders of magnitude, about 100 times more sensitive," he said. "We may be able to detect a steroid or something that's long-lived a couple of years after it was taken."

Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3.

Among the 900 or so athletes who competed at the weekend's USA Masters Track Indoor Championship in Boston, one was in a category all of his own. That is, Leland McPhie, a member of the 100+ age group.

This World War Two veteran, representing the Southern California Track Club, took part in four events - high jump, shot put, weight throw and superweight throw - at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

Four events at 100. Quite something. Actually, it was five events for McPhie, the most taxing of which was surely the Interview Round.

"I haven't been training too much," he confessed to the Boston Herald before competition got underway. For shame!!!

"Two of the events I haven't done before, but my coach wants me to do it," he added. "I'll be the only one in my age group, and I can get points for the club. I'm a team player."

The report added that McPhie had competed for San Diego State in the 1930s and was setting track records more than 70 years ago, pole vaulting with a bamboo pole with the nickname "grasshopper."

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune report, McPhie, the oldest of nine children, taught himself how to pole vault. "It was the Depression, and they didn't have money to hire coaches," he said.

In the week preceding the championships, officials in San Diego County - where the centenarian had worked for the Sheriff's Department from 1940 to 1969 - declared March 10 to be "Leland McPhie Day".

And at the end of the three-day competition involving 89 clubs, one stood proudly top of the rankings. Yes, it was McPhie's own Southern California Track Club. Ahhh.....

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.