Sports News

The world’s foremost sporting honours will return in April when the winners of the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards are announced. Due to the ongoing limitations and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 Awards will build on the success of Laureus’ 2021 ‘virtual’ Awards.

The showcase event will continue to celebrate the achievement of athletes and the inspirational stories from the world of sport, which last year included the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and Euro 2020.

Research has revealed the highest-rated football stadiums in Europe, with three British stadiums ranking top ten - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Millennium Stadium and Wembley Stadium. The study by money.co.uk analysed stadium reviews across several review platforms to reveal the best (& worst) reviewed football stadiums in Europe, as well as the UK.  

The  Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries recently visited the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, a major new sports facility which is being built to host the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games this summer.

Alongside Paralympic swimming champion Ellie Simmonds, the Culture Secretary applauded a major milestone in the delivery of the state-of-the-art facility. Combined, the competition swimming pool and dive pool have now been filled with 1.2 million gallons of water.

Between 29 July and 8 August, the venue will play host to hundreds of athletes and thousands of spectators across diving, swimming and para swimming competitions. With 66 medal events in total set to be held at the facility, it will be the stage for more medal moments than any other Birmingham 2022 venue.

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries, said:“My ambition is to make sure that every child in the UK, whether they grow up in Sunderland or Smethwick, has access to excellent sports facilities. This world-class aquatics centre will help do just that. Not only will it showcase the talents of some of the greatest swimmers and divers on the planet but its legacy will be its use by people in the West Midlands for generations after the Games.

“Sandwell is a clear example of why the UK bids for major events and why we are so good at hosting them. Events like Birmingham 2022 can be a catalyst for levelling up access to sport and culture.” 

Birmingham 2022 will be the first ever major multi-sport event to feature more medals for women than for men and will have the biggest ever para sport programme at a Commonwealth Games. Sandwell Aquatics Centre - which is being funded by DCMS, Sandwell Council, Sport England and other local partners - is set to be completed in spring, and will be open to the public next year. 

Located four miles west of Birmingham, the centre will be a clear example of the lasting legacy the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will leave. According to PHE data, the estimated percentage of physically active adults in the Sandwell region is lower than the England average. With long-term community health in mind, the site will feature the West Midlands’ first 10m diving platform, as well as a 50m pool, brand new exercise facilities, a football pitch and a women-only gym. 

Birmingham 2022 board member and five-time Paralympic champion, Ellie Simmonds said: “It’s amazing to visit the Sandwell Aquatics Centre and to see the fantastic progress that has been made. Not only will this be an incredible venue for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games but it will also be a wonderful facility for local people to use for years to come.”

Councillor Kerrie Carmichael, leader of Sandwell Council, said: “As always it is fantastic to be visiting the Sandwell Aquatics Centre to see how much further we have come to completing the venue. 

“It’s incredible to see the swimming pools filled and you can now visualise how the venue will look during the 11 days when we will be hosting the swimming and diving events for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Sandwell residents can now really get a sense of what the venue has to offer when it will be open to the public as a leisure centre for all to use. I look forward to seeing the final touches being added to the venue in the coming months in readiness for the Games this summer.” 

The centre will improve access to swimming and diving for local residents, schools and clubs, and there is a long-term partnership in place with the University of Wolverhampton to maximise opportunities for local staff and students. The government continues to support the elite, grassroots and leisure sectors with an unprecedented £1 billion to ensure sport remains accessible for all throughout the pandemic.

Since launching Sporting Future in 2015, Sport England has allocated over £1.5 billion to nearly 5,000 organisations within the UK.

A British-born former DJ is to become Jamaica's first Alpine skier at the Winter Olympics - six years after taking up the sport.

Benjamin Alexander is set to compete in the giant slalom in Beijing, having only starting skiing in 2015 when he skied on holiday in Whistler, in Canada, where he had been invited to DJ at a party.

Fixtures for the 2022 domestic season have been announced and men’s LV= Insurance County Champions Warwickshire will begin their title defence at Edgbaston versus Surrey starting on Thursday 7 April. Having lifted the Championship for the eighth time in September, Warwickshire also host Essex, Northamptonshire, Lancashire, Kent, Somerset and Hampshire in the seven First Class fixtures at Edgbaston this summer.

The eSkootr Championship™ (eSC) has appointed Tracy Novak as Director of Communications. Novak joins eSC with over two decades’ experience working at the highest level in motorsport, including Formula One teams, the governing body for world motorsport - the FIA - and most recently its national sporting authority Motorsport UK where she was Director of Marketing and Communications. 

Novak’s arrival comes at a pivotal time for eSC as the Championship builds towards its debut season, with the race schedule, rider line-up and details of the eSC Commission soon to be announced.

 UK Athletics has commenced recruitment of a new Chief Executive Officer to take the organisation forward. The process opened on Tuesday (January 18) and the closing date for applications is 20 February 2022.

This recruitment phase comes at a key time for the organisation which has been under the leadership of Chair Ian Beattie since October, and with four major senior track and field championships scheduled for 2022, the incoming CEO will take their seat at an exciting time for the sport. Interim CEO Mark Munro (pic.) has confirmed that he will not be applying for the permanent role of CEO at this time for personal reasons but will remain at UKA and continue his already successful work area overseeing Development.

Jamaica will be sending a four-man bobsleigh team to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1998.

They will be representing the Caribbean island at the 2022 Beijing Games after Team Jamaica confirmed on Twitter a place at the games this year was secured.

Olympic 1500m silver medallist Laura Muir (GBR) will target the 1000m world indoor record at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Saturday 19 February.

Muir, the 2018 world indoor 1500m silver medallist, is the European indoor 1000m record holder having clocked 2:31.93 in Birmingham in 2017. The current world record is held by Maria Mutola (MOZ), the Olympic 800m champion in Sydney 2000, who ran 2:30.94 in Stockholm in 1999.

Former Wimbledon doubles champion Sania Mirza has announced that she will be retiring from tennis after 2022. She made her decision after her first-round loss in the women's doubles in the Australian Open.

One of India's most celebrated sports stars, she told reporters: "I've decided that this will be my last season. I'm taking it week by week. Not sure if I can last the season, but I want to."

With its Engstler racing team, the German motor oil and additive manufacturer become one of the main Honda customer team in the WTCR and TCR Germany. 

In the new season, LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler will be driving Honda Civic Type R TCR vehicles in the WTCR and TCR Germany. Peter Baumann, Marketing Director at the lubricant specialist, is optimistic about the newly agreed cooperation: “We are very excited to be part of the global Honda motorsports program starting next season.

Andrew Pozzi (GBR) and Grant Holloway (USA), the reigning world indoor champion and world record-holder over 60m hurdles respectively, will line up at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena on 19 February.

Pozzi, who won the global 60m hurdles title in Birmingham in 2018, finished seventh in the 110m hurdles at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

World No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas has said that Novak Djokovic is playing by his own rules and has made vaccinated tennis players look like fools. Record nine-time winner and top seed Djokovic, 34, remains in the Australian Open draw as the decision over whether the defending champion can stay in the country drags on.

"For sure, he's been playing by his own rules and has been doing what not many players had the guts to do," Greece's Tsitsipas told India's said. "Especially after the ATP announced certain criteria for players to enter the country."

Beijing says that it is adopting all necessary coronavirus safety measures for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which start next month.

So what is being planned for the Games, and how successful has China's policy of "zero Covid" been? China is going to great lengths to keep the virus out.

Hosts Cameroon came from behind to defeat Burkina Faso 2-1 in the opening match of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations match at the Olembe Stadium in Yaoundé on Sunday.

The match was a competitive and, at times, tense affair against the backdrop of Burkina Faso’s threat to boycott the game due to what they alleged as irregularities in the COVID-19 test results of their players and staff.

Sport Relief has today been announced as an official charity partner of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, marking an exciting new future for the brand. Through the partnership, there will be a host of public and high-profile events and activities planned in the run-up to the highly anticipated international sporting event taking place in Birmingham, this summer.