Sports News

The Midlands is buzzing with running mania after organisers of the Birmingham International Marathon revealed more than 4,000 people have already signed up for next year’s inaugural event, just two weeks after entries were opened. The marathon takes place on Sunday, October 15, 2017 – the same day as the Great Birmingham Run half marathon – which means more than 25,000 runners are expected to hit the streets of the city for a true festival of running.

The University of Wolverhampton has kicked off a new football programme at schools in Staffordshire as a way of getting young people to think about their future goals. ‘Kick-Off - Explore Your Future’ is a new programme which is running over five weeks and using football to engage 13 and 14 year old pupils.  It involves 90 students from 5 different schools; Holy Trinity Academy, De Ferrers Academy, Sundorne Sports College, Staffordshire University Academy and Telford Priory School.   

Ousman Manneh created history when he scored the winning goal for Werder Bremen in their 2-1 shock victory over Bundesliga rivals, Bayer Leverkusen which capped a fairytale rise for him after having just two years after fleeing his homeland, The Gambia, as a refugee. The 19-year-old recently left his entire family behind two years ago and only started playing football when he settled in a German refugee centre, but impressed in a trial with German fifth tier side Blumenthaler in 2014 before going on to score 15 goals in 11 games for their youth team.

Lawyers at Birmingham law firm Clarke Willmott LLP are celebrating a new sponsorship partnership with the Solihull Moors FC under-13s girls’ team, in a deal which comes during Women’s Sport Week. The law firm is sponsoring the up-and-coming team this season as they compete in the Central Warwickshire Girls Football League. Partner Rayner Grice said supporting the junior girls’ team was important to her colleagues who feel passionately about encouraging young people into sports and supporting non traditional women and girls teams.

The UK Corporate Games - Europe's largest annual multi sports festival for businesses - will be hosted in Nottingham for the first time ever in 2017.  It is expected to attract around 5-6,000 participants to the city from all over the UK. The Games will be taking place across multiple sporting venues in Nottingham - VisitEngland's Home of Sport - from 6 – 9 July 2017 and many of the UK's top companies have already entered a team.

As its ongoing campaign continues its run throughout the 2016/17 season, which also aims to highlight the positive messages of inclusion echoed by football authorities, County FA’s, clubs, players, managers and supporters. Kick It Out has been tackling discrimination, promoting equality and supporting victims of discrimination in football for over 20 years and wants to see the game remain open and inclusive.

Warwickshire’s end-of-season victory over Lancashire to ensure safety from relegation in the County Championship proved a relief as they avoided the ‘ecstasy-to-agony’ scenario following their cup wins earlier. With their eight-wicket One-Day Cup final destruction of Surrey in the bag, the win over their fellow league strugglers made it a double-delight for the Bears with the 237 runs win at Edgbaston.

Frankie Gavin and Sam Eggington will meet in an all-Birmingham Welterweight clash at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on October 22, live on Sky Sports. Eggington and Gavin were scheduled to meet for Eggington’s British and Commonwealth titles last October but injury to Gavin set their careers on different paths. Gavin was forced onto the side-lines through issues outside the ring but teamed up with Max McCracken after spending and, like Eggington, returned to action in July in Leeds to set up their hotly-anticipated fight.

This autumn, England's women's football team will join 15 other squads from around the world, for the country's largest sporting tournament and international event in history, the FIFA Under 17 Women's World Cup. The tournament, which runs from 30th September 2016 – 21st October 2016, will be held in the Middle East's Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and go down in history as the largest sporting tournament and international event to be held in the country.

Reigning Paralympic champions Richard Whitehead and Hannah Cockroft have been named captains of the athletics team for the Paralympic Games in Rio, which gets underway today. Whitehead produced one of the moments of London 2012 racing to T42 200m gold accompanied by his iconic ‘two guns salute’ celebration. The 40 year old has continued to go from strength-to-strength taking over a second off the world record set four years ago running 23.03 last month in London.

An inspiration and a legend, Fab Flournoy would like nothing more than to return to the Barclaycard Arena and lift yet more silverware at what promises to be another exciting and spectacular day at the 2017 Basketball Cup Finals. It's a venue and city which still holds special significance for someone whose first chapter on their sparkling journey to becoming the most successful coach in British Basketball League history started in Birmingham.

Applications flooded in from 92 countries around the world including Jamaica, Thailand, Armenia and Uruguay. Whilst over 200,000 tickets were applied for Session 3 featuring the men’s 100m final, 13 of the 14 sessions in one price category or more have been balloted, reflecting the public’s huge appetite for live sport and world-class athletics.

Young people from The Way Youth Zone competed in the Wolves Premier League Kicks Tournament against rivals West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa Football Club and Wolves Kicks Premier League youth team. The young people, aged between 11-13 years old, took part in their first competitive football tournament on Tuesday 23rd August at the Wolves Community Trust Dome in Aldersley.

Tividale’s 12-year-old tennis prodigy, Elise Dennis is proving such a big hit on the domestic tennis circuit, that she’s setting her sights further afield. Having reached the semi-finals for her age group at Junior Wimbledon this summer, Elise is now preparing to challenge some of Europe’s elite young tennis players, when she competes in Tennis Europe in Bath next month.

Leicester has ranked as the UK’s Greatest Sporting City for 2016, according to research from ESPN and the University of Bath.The accolade for the city comes after leading UK sport site ESPN.co.uk collaborated with the University of Bath on the second annual research project to discover the best place in the country to be a sports fan. Leicester topped the ranking after scoring highly in most of the 12 factors that fans identified as key to a great sporting city.