Sports News

Birmingham 2022 is hosting the 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay – a journey which brings together and celebrates communities in every corner of the Commonwealth ahead of Birmingham 2022. The Baton has already begun its epic journey across the Commonwealth, where it will have visited Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, and the Americas, it will return to England in July 2022 for the final countdown to the Commonwealth Games.

“In a blog I posted on social media channels last week I reflected on the fact that it was the 37th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium disaster, where 39 Italian football supporters were killed prior to Juventus’ European Cup Final with Liverpool,” says Canadian businessman and former politician and diplomat, Frank McKenna PC OC ONB QC.

Boxers at the Rectory Amateur Boxing Club in Sutton Coldfield, in the West Modlands, have been using their jabs and hooks to make music thanks to the Birmingham 2022 Festival.

Five boxers from the club have joined forces with two local musicians – Joe Cook and Mr Auden Allen – to create musical tracks based on each boxer’s style and pace.

16-year-olds Hamza Shaikh and Amir Khan have become the latest players in the Warwickshire County Cricket Club Academy to secure professional contracts, with both players having originally joined the Club at the under 10s age group. 

Top order batter Shaikh made a Second XI century last month and he is currently finishing his GCSEs at Eden Boys School in Perry Barr, Birmingham.

It’s not news that North African clubs dominate African club football. The dominance of North African clubs is also reflected in the transfer outlay in continental football. According to the figures presented by SportsLens.com, seven out of the ten biggest spending clubs in Africa belonged to the northern nations.

The multi-year sponsorship agreement between Qatar Airways and Concacaf enters its second year, with the airline taking centre stage as the Presenting Sponsor for the 2022/23 Concacaf Nations League (CNL). The CNL presented by Qatar Airways is a premier international football competition of men’s national teams from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

The Great Britain and Northern Ireland team will be represented by 29 athletes for the European Off-Road Running Championships in La Palma, Spain on 1-3 July.

For the first time at the European edition of the event, the mountain running and trail races will take place at the same event across three days of action in the Spanish mountains.

Elaine Thompson-Herah and Trayvon Bromell grabbed 100m Diamond League victories in Eugene, where eight world-leading performances highlighted the action at Hayward Field.

Jamaica's Thompson-Herah, who won back-to-back Olympic 100m-200m doubles in 2016 and last year, captured the women's 100m in 10.79.

Tom Paulson has been appointed as the Head of Paralympic Performance at UK Athletics following the completion of an open recruitment process which included a para athlete representative.

Paulson, who will take his post in mid-August, will join UK Athletics from the English Institute of Sport (EIS) where he has held the post of Head of Paralympic Performance Support since 2017, working at the British Paralympic Association as Head of Performance for Tokyo 2020, and Deputy Chef de Mission for Beijing 2022.

The University of Wolverhampton has launched a new Performance Pathway Training Programme to support the transition onto the British Judo World Class Performance Programme (WCPP).

The long-standing relationship between the University of Wolverhampton and British Judo continues to thrive, with British Judo relocating its Head Office to the Walsall Campus alongside its Performance Team.

The Professional Fighters League, the fastest growing and most innovative sports league, have announced two major back-to-back 2022 Playoffs will be hosted in Cardiff and London this summer in partnership with Live Nation, the world’s largest music and entertainment promoter.  

MMA fans in the United Kingdom for the first time ever will experience the greatest fighters on the planet compete in the PFL’s win-and-advance season format. 

The British Basketball League (BBL) and Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) have both announced the renewal of its partnership with exclusive apparel sponsor Kappa.

The worldwide sportswear company has continued their significant commitment to supporting the league, with this latest deal ensuring the BBL is Kappa’s longest standing UK based partner.

Birmingham 2022 has passed a significant milestone on the journey towards the Commonwealth Games this summer, as it successfully delivered its first official public test events. 

Happening on the same day in two different parts of the region, the Müller Birmingham Diamond League event at Alexander Stadium, and the ‘Prep the Pool’ swimming event at the newly built Sandwell Aquatics Centre were both safely and successfully delivered.

Forestry Commission Chair, Sir William Worsley officially opened the impressive new cycling facilities at Forestry England Cannock Chase Forest. Showcased at the event was ‘Perry’s Trail’, an off-road trail for intermediate riders which is going to be used as the backbone of the course that will host the mountain bike competition at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games this summer.

British athletes shone at their home Müller Birmingham Diamond League as Dina Asher-Smith, Laura Muir, Matt Hudson-Smith, Keely Hodgkinson and the women’s 4x100m relay took victory while there were also six world leads set at an impressively renovated Alexander Stadium.

Asher-Smith held strong in the women’s 100m – and was impressive as the British women set a world lead in the 4x100m relay – and Birmingham’s own Hudson-Smith also immoveable in the men’s 400m.

Biniam Girmay made history as the first Black African winner of a Grand Tour stage - but then had to go to hospital after an accident while celebrating. Eritrea's Girmay, 22, beat Mathieu van der Poel in a sprint for the line to win stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia.

But he missed a post-race news conference to go for a hospital check-up after hitting himself in his left eye with a prosecco cork on the podium.