Runner Rebecca Drackley is taking on the Marathon des Sables – known as the toughest footrace on earth – to raise funds for working animal charity SPANA.Thirty-seven year-old Rebecca from Birmingham will begin the ultra-marathon on 8 April and over six days will cover 156 miles of the Sahara desert, in temperatures up to 48˚C. The rules of the race means that she will have to be self-sufficient, carrying everything that she will need to survive, in her backpack.

Birmingham based Muay Thai World Champion, Dean James defeated experienced Frenchman, Hakim Hamech, with a dominant display at Muay Thai Grand Prix 3 at the Indigo O2, London. Three-time World Champion James put on a Muay Thai masterclass from the first round, filled with his trademark knee strikes and clinch drills. He sealed the win by way of unanimous decision.

As the IAAF World Indoor Championships drew to a close in Portland the USA handed the baton to the UK who will host the next edition in 2018 at Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena. The city previously hosted the Championships in 2003 as well as the European Indoor Championships in 2007, giving t a proven track record and pedigree in staging major championships.

World and Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill has said it would be ‘quite a buzz’ to compete in the 2017 World Championships in London before she retires. Ennis-Hill, who will find out next month if she has won the 2016 Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award, has not yet announced what her plans are beyond the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

As the sporting world mourns the death of Johan Cruyff, it’s rest assured that his legacy will live bright in the game he so uniquely graced. The Dutch master, who lost his following a five-month battle against lung cancer, will always be remembered for being the leader of that great Netherlands team who brought a new dimension to the world game, with their newly invented brand of ‘total football.’