Sports News

The biggest stars in snooker are set to return to Wolverhampton next year after the success of last week’s Cazoo Players Championship at Aldersley Leisure Village.

City of Wolverhampton Council worked closely with the World Snooker Tour (WST) to stage the event in the city for the first time, with more than 4,000 people attending across the seven days.

Qatar Airways extends its congratulations to Chelsea F.C. for clinching the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 title, which took place yesterday in a highly competitive final against SE Palmeiras.  Qatar Airways, the tournament’s Official Airline Partner, was present at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in the UAE for a special prize distribution ceremony.

Start lists are live for the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham with 10 reigning Olympic or world champions competing in the Utilita Arena on Saturday 19 February. Athletes in the line-ups have a combined number of 136 world and Olympic medals between them.

In addition, they own a whopping 180 Commonwealth or European medals.

Sadio Mane is to have a stadium named after him in the south-western city of Sedhiou after helping Senegal to their maiden continental success.

The Liverpool forward scored the winning penalty as the Teranga Lions beat Egypt 4-2 on penalties to clinch their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), after the game ended goalless following extra time.

West Midlands Combined Authority ‘Get Set for the Games’ as they enter a 20-strong team to the Great Birmingham Run Mayor Andy Street and a team from West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) set to run the Great Birmingham Run on behalf of Cure Leukaemia.

Having urged residents and businesses to ‘Get Set for the Games’ ahead of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games - as more than a million visitors are expected to come to the West Midlands - Mayor of West Midlands Andy Street will be lacing up his running shoes, as he looks to raise funds for Cure Leukaemia in the Great Birmingham Run on May 01.

When speed skater Erin Jackson unexpectedly failed to qualify for the Winter Olympics, team-mate Brittany Bowe stepped in to rescue her long-time friend's Beijing dreams. It was an incredible gesture of friendship.

Jackson, the world's No.1 ranked 500m speed skater, unexpectedly failed to make the US team after slipping and finishing third in her country’s trials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bowe, who specialises in longer-distance races but had finished first in 500m qualifying, gave up her position to her teammate, Erin. 

A rugby player who was seriously hurt while scoring a try during a match has died.

Evesham Rugby Club player Jack Jeffery, 27, was taken to hospital after being injured in the Seniors League game against Berkswell and Balsall. Club chair Dave Summerfield said that the players were reeling, saying it was such a terrible shock.

Paralympic champions Sophie Hahn (coach: Leon Baptiste, club: Charnwood) and Thomas Young (Joe McDonnell, Loughborough Students) headline the mixed class Para 60m sprint events at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham at the Utilita Arena on 19 February.

Hahn, the T38 world record holder in the 100m (12.38) and 200m (25.92), won Tokyo gold in an exceptionally high standard 100m where she equalled her own world record in qualifying.

West Bromwich Albion Women will make history in March when they play their first official match at The Hawthorns, the home of their male counterparts since 1900.

Albion Women, who regularly play their Women’s National League games at Sutton Coldfield Town’s Coles Lane ground, host high flying Derby County on Sunday, March 6, 2022 (ko 2pm).

Olympic and world champion Mariya Lasitskene (ANA) and current world leader Emily Borthwick (GBR) will go head-to-head in the women’s high jump at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena on 19 February.

Lasitskene, the reigning world indoor champion, has an indoor best of 2.05m.

The inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championships and Commonwealth Esports Forum will be staged in Birmingham, England this summer. The Championships is a tangible result of the Strategic Partnership between the Global Esports Federation and the Commonwealth Games Federation, announced in May 2020.

The new competition in Birmingham will be supported by the British Esports Association, the not-for-profit national body established in 2016 to promote esports in the UK, increase its level of awareness, improve standards and inspire future talent.

World champion skier Eileen Gu made her Olympic debut in the women's big air qualification round. But even before that, Ms Gu - also known as China's ‘Snow Princess’ - was already known to millions.

Teenage US-born athlete, Ms Gu is indisputably a gifted skier. At 18, she has already won eight international skiing events, claiming gold for the big air event in the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne and medalling three times at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, last year.

UK Athletics has today announced the five-strong team which will head to Muscat, Oman next month for the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships. British record holder in the 20km race walk Tom Bosworth (Andi Drake, Tonbridge), and Cameron Corbishley (Andi Drake, Medway and Maidstone) will contest the distance at the event.

Double world champion Noah Lyles (USA) headlines the men’s 60m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on 19 February. The 24-year-old Olympic 200m bronze medallist, the fastest man in the world over the distance in 2021 (19.52), is ranked fourth on the global all-time list (19.50).

Senegal's football team was given a hero's welcome on their return home after winning the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) for the first time.

Tens of thousands of people, some sitting on top of cars and waving flags, gathered to welcome the players landing in Dakar with the trophy. President Macky Sall was amongst those greeting them.

Following a sixteen-year battle to stay in the UK, as well as enduring slavery as a victim of human trafficking, homelessness and an eventual meteoric rise to represent England in the ring, Boxing star, Bilal Fawaz, is taking the next step with his first professional fight against Vladimir Fleischhauer at Bethnal Green’s York Hall, February 11th, 2022.