A Shropshire boxing coach says winning a Thrive Mental Health Award means helping more people by changing lives through sport.

Bright Star Boxing Club was named Mental Health Star in the Team, Service, Organisation category for Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Herefordshire, Cannock Chase and Tamworth at the recent West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Thrive Awards.

Club development manager Joe Lockley said people became part of a family and a community in Bright Star, with role models they may never have had before.

He said: “Sport can be used as such a vehicle for change – the benefits are so much more than just physical.

The way boxing has supported people is incredible – and actually it’s not just boxing, I think it’s sport in general.

I’ve seen how it can help people – we’ve seen people overcoming addiction, anxiety and depression and people who are really socially isolated starting to feel part of a family, a community.

A lot of us are mental health first-aid trained and we can create that environment and I think we are seen as positive role models for the young people we’re working with.”

Joe said the award was an inspiration onto even bigger and better things.

“Winning this award is absolutely incredible for us and will help spur us on to do more amazing things and hopefully get more referrals from hard to reach groups,” he commented.

Bright Star has helped people at risk of offending, people who have been sexually abused and had a life changing impact on a lot of people.

The academy takes referrals from other organisations and also has sessions running outside the club for women who have been sexually abused, children in care, substance misuse and  children at risk of offending.

Six of the coaches are mental health first aid trained and the academy has shown that with the right volunteers boxing can support high anxiety, depression, offending behaviour and young people struggling with anger and substance misuse.

Young people receive mentoring to help them set goals and free one-one sessions are offered to young people with high anxiety to enable them to take part.

British Athletics have accepted a European Athletics invite for Niamh Emerson to compete in the pentathlon at next week’s European Indoor Championships on home soil in Glasgow – the Amber Valley & Erewash athlete being only the second British athlete ever to win the IAAF World Junior Championship heptathlon title during a stellar 2018, which also included Commonwealth bronze, and has begun this year indoors in fine style with victory in the pentathlon at the Combined Events International in Cardiff with a personal best 4544 points.

That score placed Emerson fourth on the all-time British rankings and currently fourth on the 2019 world and European indoor rankings and has led to an official European Athletics invite to compete for Great Britain & Northern Ireland in Glasgow.

With Katarina Johnson-Thompson already announced, Emerson’s invite means there will be two British athletes in the pentathlon for the third time since the event was introduced onto the European Indoor Championships programme in 1992.

Emerson’s inclusion takes the number of athletes to have stepped up having competed at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Finland last year to four with Kristal Awuah (Herne Hill), Joe Brier (Swansea) and Alex Haydock-Wilson (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) all major senior international debutants for the British team.

Grammy award winning singer Junior Giscombe is back with a new album dedicated to his musical routes.

‘Every Ting Set’ sees the south London musician team up with a number of reggae artists and features new versions of his huge hit - 'Mamma Used to Say.' 

Originally a big hit in 1984, the No 7 UK Chart hit single also gave him Top 5 R&B in the United States which earned him a ‘Best Newcomer’ award from Billboard magazine. His follow-up single, ‘Too Late,’ also made the Top 20 in the UK.

Although not a regular in the Charts, he made a brief return to the Top 10 in 1987 with ‘Another Step (Closer to You)’ - a duet with then queen of pop Kim Wilde.

The uncle of celebrated British comedian and EastEnders star Richard Blackwood, who sampled ‘Mama Used to Say’ on his own single ‘Mama – Who Da Man’ in June 2000,

Giscombe was also a prolific songwriter for various artists, including Sheena Easton, Maxi Priest, Penny Ford (ex of Snap), Amy Stewart, and Ruby Turner.

Over the years, artistes such as Heavy D, Warren.G, Cam’rom and Brand Nubians have sampled the classics’ Mama Used To Say and Too Late.’        

The likes of 2018 Commonwealth Games and European Championship gold medallis Dina Asher-Smith and 1500 metre European, two-time 2017 European Indoor champion, 1500m/3000m double, and two-time 2018 World Indoor Championship medallist Laura Muir alongside the world’s very best, have been regular names at this event, the Muller Grand Prix Birmingham, lane-by-lane, with other major figures in this, the Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham - ranked as the best one-day indoor meeting in the world – will see more world-class head to heads expected to light up the Arena Birmingham today.

With the city known loving its athletics, and having produced many a British and world legends of the sport, such as Sir Mo Farah, today’s fare, part of the IAAF World Indoor tour, promises even greater excitement than ever before.

And it’s just another taster for when the very best in the Commonwealth comes to Birmingham in 2022.

British motorsport looks set to be excluded from a planned overhaul of EU motor insurance rules after a European Parliament vote on Wednesday.

MEPs, meeting in Strasbourg, supported an amendment tabled by Conservative MEP for the West Midlands Dan Dalton to insist that motorsport teams and drivers would not be required to buy costly third party liability insurance.

Many teams, suppliers and other companies in the UK contacted Dan to warn that European Commission proposal would drive up costs.

However, motorsport events are already covered by comprehensive public liability insurance in the UK.

The Commission’s draft law came after a 2014 ruling by judges in Luxembourg that off-road vehicles should have unlimited third party liability insurance, including on private land.

Conservative MEPs said the legislation was so vague that it could have effectively shut down British motorsport as amateur clubs would struggle to cope with the extra costs, while many underwriters said they would refuse to offer this kind of insurance for larger events.

But Dan’s amendment included the phrase “in traffic” to mitigate the impact of the Commission’s proposal, which won the support of the European Parliament today,

This was a badly drafted proposal that should have been clearly thought through before it ever saw the light of day,” said Dalton, whose father used to volunteer as a marshal at motorsport events up and down the UK. “The vote is a victory for common sense regulation.

This would be catastrophic for grassroots enthusiasts. How could clubs produce the next motorsport stars of the future?

The next step is for negotiators from the European Parliament, EU governments and the European Commission to thrash out a compromise text that would eventually become the final law.”

He concluded: “I think MEPs have sent a clear message today. Everyone involved d: should make sure that motorsport is left unaffected by this new legislation. This is more than just a job for some people; it is a way of life,"

If the law takes effect before Brexit, or during the planned two-year transition phase, then it will apply in the UK.

The motorsport industry is worth more than nine billion pounds to the British economy. Motorsport Valley, which stretches from the West Midlands to East Anglia, employs more than 40,000 people.

Organizers of a sporting event in Wales have taken the step of banning boys from its national netball competition; saying it was aimed at encouraging more girls to take part while boys' physical strength sometimes put them at an advantage.

The Urdd National Sports Festival, which takes place in Aberystwyth, is one of many annual events it puts on and primary schools were – despite the ruling - told girls will be able to play in the football competition with boys at the same tournament.

Pupils have criticised the move, with some saying: "Netball isn't just for girls, it's for boys and girls. If they're taking away netball from the boys, why don't they take a sport away from the girls?"

Another pupil said: "Why can't boys play netball? I'm normally into football, but I wanted to try something different. If girls are allowed to play football, why can’t we do netball?"

The Urdd Gobaith Cymru was set up in 1922 to provide opportunities for children through the medium of Welsh.