Sports News

Barcelona's famed academy is the envy of the footballing world for developing talent, and youngsters can discover just what it takes to be the best by taking part in the Official Barcelona Junior Football Camp at Spain's La Manga Club this summer. Five-time World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas are just three of the players to have used the Spanish champions' illustrious academy on their way to global stardom, and budding stars can follow in their footsteps at the camp, which will be staged at La Manga Club for the fourth year running.

The world’s best Para athletes will be supported by at least 90,000 school-aged spectators this summer with London schools taking advantage of the unique ticket offer supported by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. More than 1,000 schools from across the capital will provide their students with the trip of a lifetime to the World Para Athletics Championships that take place 14 – 23 July.

With just days to go before the first ball is bowled in the eighth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, the dates have been announced for when the trophies for the two events will take to the streets of the host cities. Sponsored by Nissan, the Trophy Tour will see both the ICC Champions Trophy and ICC Women’s World Cup spend 31 days travelling around the seven cities. They will start in Taunton on Tuesday 2 May and finish at The Oval on Thursday June 2 for England v Bangladesh.

Hot on the heels of Birmingham’s staging of the Müller Indoor Grand Prix, the world’s top indoor athletics meeting, USA Track & Field, the governing body for athletics in the US, have confirmed that their training camp will be based in the city ahead of this summer’s IAAF World Championships in London. Councillor Ian Ward, Deputy Leader for Birmingham City Council said: “I am delighted that USATF are returning to the city and we look forward to supporting their final preparations ahead of the IAAF World Championships in London.

International skating superstar Tony Hawk dropped in on Stockton Sand Dunes prior to defending his Masters title at GENERAL PANTS BOWL-A-RAMA which took place at Bondi Beach last weekend. During Tony's time at Stockton Sand Dunes he had the opportunity to sand board down some of the largest sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere with local tourism operator, Sand Dune Adventures. Sand Dune Adventures is a not-for-profit enterprise owned and operated by the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council (WLALC).

Back-to-back defeats have seen Cheshire Phoenix fall further off the pace in the battle for the top eight.  Robbie Peers has brought back former guard, Mike DiNunno, for a second spell at the club and they face a tough double-header in the quest to get back on track. Firstly, they visit the Emirates Arena - the scene of their last league victory - having beaten Glasgow Rocks in the last game of 2016, before hosting Plymouth Raiders tomorrow.

There wasn’t a dry eye as the assembled gathering of some of the world’s greatest ever athletes; including Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Beatrice Vio, Nico Rosberg and Claudio Ranierie, paid homage to one particulate winner at  this year’s Laureus World Sports Awards. It was the Refugee team – 10 hand-picked refugees from Syria, Congo, Ethiopia and South Sudan - which competed at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, taking part in athletics, swimming and judo was awarded for Sporting Inspiration.

The start lists are now live for the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham, which takes place at the Barclaycard Arena this Saturday February 18. A total of five Rio Olympic champions will be among 25 current global medallists competing at the world’s top indoor athletics meeting, which is the final of the IAAF World Indoor Tour. Sir Mo Farah will be one of those Olympic champions as he competes in the 5000m. The four time Olympic champion and five time world champion will face a field including Scotland’s Andrew Butchart, who ran the third fastest 3000m in the world this year with a time of 7:41.05 in New York on Saturday.

Novak Djokovic, last year’s Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, lit up the red carpet at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin by showing his off dazzling white sneakers in an acrobatic leap in front of the world’s media. The image took the internet by storm and sent a message that sport can have the power to change the world.

The 2017 Vitality Superleague season promises to be one of the most exciting yet, with competition increased courtesy of three new franchises, talent spread across the league thanks to smaller playing rosters and new exciting players, plus venues and coaches. The weekly action promises to be fierce and exciting.

British tennis is enjoying its most successful period for 30 years, and the next generation of up-and-coming players can sharpen their technique using the same facilities that have helped inspire the nation's stars at two new junior academies at Spain's La Manga Club this year. The official overseas training base of the Lawn Tennis Association, La Manga Club has hosted the likes of world number one Andy Murray as well as British women's number one Johanna Konta, Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund in recent years, and the resort will be running two extra programmes in 2017 – an 'Advanced Matchplay' academy and 'Junior Elite' academy.

Britain’s 60m hurdles world leader Andrew Pozzi will go head to head with Rio Olympic silver and bronze medallists Orlando Ortega and Dimitri Bascou, as well as rising star David Omoregie, at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham. Ortega of Spain and France’s reigning European champion Bascou, are just two of 39 current global champions and medallists competing at the world’s top indoor athletics meeting at the Barclaycard Arena on 18 February.

Innsbruck has been the starting, staging or finishing point of various major bikes races on more than thirty occasions. With the Tour of the Alps, the Ötztal Bike Marathon, the Crankworx Biking Festival, the Road Race and the Haute Routes Dolomites, this year Innsbruck will be hosting no fewer than five international élite biking events. And these will whet the appetite for the event highlight next year: in September 2018 Innsbruck will be the venue for the UCI – Road World Championships where the best road racers in the world will be gathering. 

Atlanta’s own Orrin ‘Checkmate’ Hudson is using the enthusiasm that is a part of his every day game plan to encourage the NFL to open the Georgia Dome for one last football celebration on Sunday, when the Atlanta Falcons face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. Hudson is the founder of Be Someone, Inc., an organization that uses the game of chess to teach young people how to make the right moves in life.

Strathmore water has been announced as the national supplier of bottled water for both the IAAF World Championships London 2017 and the World Para Athletics Championships. Athletes, officials and volunteers at both events next summer will be hydrated by more than one million bottles of water being supplied by the water brand. This year will bring together more than 3000 world-class athletes from more than 200 countries, who will compete in 30 sessions across 20 jam-packed and action-fueled days as both the World Para Athletics Championships (14-23 July) and IAAF World Championships London 2017 (04-13 August) are hosted in London this summer.

The sporting legends pictured above attended the very first Laureus World Sports Awards in Monaco in 2000, where former South Africa President Nelson Mandela famously told them: ‘sport has the power to change the world.’ 17 years later, Mandela’s words still ring true and many of these legends will make a special return to Monaco next month to honour the greatest sportsmen and women of the past 12 months.