Sports News

It’s going to be a big year for Sandwell’s top young athletes, who are gearing up for a busy year in 2017. Eighteen year old para-swimmer Scott Hadley, from Tipton, is aiming to build on a brilliant performance at the National Para-swimming championships in Manchester last month. Overall Scott achieved four personal best performances from his seven races, including winning gold medals in the mens 100m Backstroke (category S8) and the mens 100m Breaststroke (category SB7) representing the Orion swimming club.

UK Athletics has confirmed Richard Bowker as the Chair-Elect who will succeed Ed Warner as Chair in January 2018. Bowker is currently a non-executive Director of London Marathon Events and is an Independent Director of the EFL (English Football League). A former Group CEO of National Express Group and Chair of the Strategic Rail Authority, he received a CBE for services to the Rail Industry in 2005.

A new nationwide survey has found that over half of Brits admit that they are inactive when it comes to playing sports - the average person only raises their heartbeat through sports for 88 minutes per week! The survey carried out by Ladbrokes has found that only 43% of residents in the West Midlands consider themselves to be active people who regularly play and participate in sports. Among these, 1 in 4 regularly jog to keep fit.

It has been announced today that the mental health charity Mind will sponsor the first ever Wellbeing award at the 2017 Lycamobile British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSAs) on March 18th. Sir Lenny Henry will host the awards ceremony at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Mind is the leading mental health charity in the UK. It provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem, as well as campaigning to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.

Britain’s top female sprinter Dina Asher-Smith will face the best sprinter in the world, double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica, over 60m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February. Elaine Thompson was the shining star of the Rio Olympic Games winning gold in the 100m and 200m sprints. Dina Asher-Smith is Britain’s fastest ever female sprinter and finished fifth over 200m at the Olympic Games in Rio in August.

World Rugby’s newly opened Hall of Fame in Rugby is a must-see experience for any sports fans in the Midlands over the festive period. Large touch-screen panels allow visitors to explore the history of the game, scroll through more than 180 of the sport’s most famous video moments (including Jonny Wilkinson’s famous, Rugby World Cup-winning dropped goal in 2003), learn about how the game is played in its various forms in 120 countries around the world and, best of all, 2.7m ‘blade’ screens project larger than life images of your choice of any of the Hall of Famers.

Visitors to the new Barnhurst Lane playing fields can take a walk down memory lane thanks to a colourful mosaic trail. The mosaics were created by members of Pendeford Art Group and are located at regular intervals along a one-kilometre long footpath which forms part of the new sports facilities at Barnhurst Lane. The mosaics explore local history, including Pendeford's 17th century Dovecote, the Autherley canal junction and the aeroplanes that used to be built by Boulton Paul and flown from Pendeford Airfield, such as the Hawker Demon biplane, the famous Second World War Defiant and the Balliol Trainer.

Warwickshire County Cricket Club has appointed its former County Championship-winning Captain Jim Troughton as First Team Coach. Troughton (37) has been an Assistant Coach at the club since retiring from playing in 2014 and will oversee all Warwickshire and Birmingham Bears men's first team matters and will be supported in this new role by Club Captain Ian Bell, Bowling Coach Alan Richardson and Batting & Second Team Coach Tony Frost as part of a new structure for the club.

Nine-time Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt ended 2016 being named the IAAF's male athlete of the year for a sixth time. The Jamaican took his overall total to nine Olympic gold medals at Rio 2016 with his third 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m relay hat-trick and was nominated for the award alongside Mo Farah and David Rudisha. Bolt was presented the award – which he had already won more times than anyone else, and claimed on five occasions between 2008 and 2013 – by IAAF president Sebastian Coe in Monaco, while the female athlete of the year gong went to Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana.

Olympic taekwondo gold medallist Jade Jones is BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality 2016 at the Wales Sport Awards in Cardiff where BBC Cymru Wales and Sport Wales celebrated Welsh sporting success. Jones, 23, won a public vote with Wales' footballers voted Team of the Year and boss Chris Coleman taking the Special Recognition Award after their 2016 Euro success. Jones secured the vote ahead of second-placed Wales and Real Madrid footballer Gareth Bale, with Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Elinor Barker in third.

Double double-Olympic and world champion Mo Farah has identified the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, ranked as the number one indoor grand prix meeting in the world, as a key event in his bid for global championships medals in 2017. It is a huge year for IAAF events in the UK with the World Para Athletics Championships in July and the IAAF World Championships in August, and a host of world-class events being staged in Birmingham over the coming months.

Brazil will play Colombia in a friendly match at the end of January to help victims of the air crash that killed most of the players, staff and directors of soccer club Chapecoense last week. A Spokesperson has also said that the Brazilian Football Confederation will donate about $ 1.5 million to Chapecoense. Nineteen of Chapecoense's players were killed in the crash just outside Medellin, Colombia, as the Brazilian team headed to the first of two matches against Colombian club Atletico Nacional to determine the champion of the Copa Sudamericana — Latin America's No. 2 club tournament.

Nigeria ended 2016 in celebratory mood after coming out on top in the Africa Women's Cup of Nations final against host nation Cameroon. Playing in front of over 40,000 fans at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaound, the Super Falcons scored late to deny Cameroon a home triumph and extend its dominance of the Women's African Cup of Nations with a 1-0 win in what proved to be a tense final.

He’s Birmingham’s very own version of Usain Bolt – or, at least that’s what he likes to think he is, as Barry Cheema aims to beat the legendary sprint-king’ medal haul next year. Cheema refers to himself as Usingh Bolt when entering any marathon and is now hoping to have won 30 medals by the time he completes the inaugural Birmingham International Marathon. The 40-year-old Walsall man is hoping to run 10 half marathons and 10 10ks in 2017, as part of a fundraising mission for the Stroke Association.

Olympic runner, Laura Muir will look to rewrite the record books when she runs in the 1000m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham in February. The 23-year-old will try to better Kelly Holmes’ British record of 2:32.96, which was set in Birmingham 13 years ago, and will also have an eye on Maria Mutola’s longstanding world record of 2:30.94.

They are from different worlds, 6,000 miles apart, but US sports legend Tamika Catchings and Cypriot student Eleni Partakki found themselves together on the basketball court celebrating a special moment in time. Laureus Ambassador Tamika is one of the greatest players in WNBA history and was a member of the invincible US women’s Olympic team. Eleni is a participant in PeacePlayers International, a Laureus-supported project which encourages Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot boys and girls to play basketball together.