English Premier League side Aston Villa have announced the signing of winger Leon Bailey for £25m from German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.

The 23-year-old Jamaica international, who has scored 28 goals in 119 appearances for Leverkusen, has signed a deal until 2025. On completing his signature Villa boss Dean Smith said: "Leon is a hugely exciting young striker with great pace and creativity.

Plans to get more people in the West Midlands cycling as part of the legacy of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has been given a £2 million boost from the Department for Transport.

The aim of Cycling for Everyone is to work with communities across the region’s most disadvantaged areas to encourage and enable more people to get on a bike to improve both their health and the environment, as well as providing access to both employment and education. Funding for the Cycling for Everyone programme has come from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Active Travel Legacy Package announced.

Work has begun to remove the large Ricoh signs from the roof of Coventry Building Society Arena. A huge 32 metre boom lift is being used to reach the four-metre-tall roof signs which can be seen clearly from miles around and on major roads near the Arena.

The signs, which have been in place for over ten years, are made of a canvas-type material stretched over metal frames and will have to be dismantled before they can be removed. Coventry Building Society Arena signs will take their place in a few months’ time and an indication of what they will look like was given last week when the new logo for the Arena was revealed.

Manchester Giants have returned their local core of North West talent as Jack Hudson, David Ulph, and Jordan Whelan have all agreed contract extensions for the 2021-22 British Basketball League (BBL) campaign.

All three made strong contributions last season, starting a combined 54 games, playing a total of over 2400 minutes, and combing for 31 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists for the team per outing. That chemistry was evident as the group of local stars go way back, with Hudson and Whelan having played alongside each other for North West teams as juniors; while Hudson and Ulph have played on the same teams progressing through the divisions in the last five years for both Liverpool Basketball Club and Lancashire Spinners.

US shot-putter Raven Saunders has made the Tokyo Olympics' first podium demonstration, after winning her event's silver medal.

As the medallists posed for photos, Saunders raised her arms and crossed them into an X shape. She said that it represented the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.

Up to 10 thletes from Nigeria will not be allowed to take part in the Tokyo Olympic Games, for failing to meet the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-doping Rules. Another 10 athletes from Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco and Ukraine were also disqualified.

In a statemen released by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), athletes from ‘Category A’ countries grouped as ‘high risk’ because of deficiencies in their testing programmes were required to undergone at least three no-notice out-of-competition tests (urine and blood) in the 10 months leading to a major event.