Leading middle-distance running stars have today been confirmed for the Emsley Carr Mile race which will take place at this year’s Müller Anniversary Games.

The competitive field will not only include nine British runners for the London Stadium crowd to get behind but will also feature 1500m indoor world record holder Samuel Tefera (ETH), London 2017 bronze medallist Filip Ingebrigsten (NOR), double Olympic medallist Nick Willis (NZL) and European and Commonwealth bronze medallist Jake Wightman (GBR).

Founded in 1953, The Emsley Carr Mile is one of the most famous races in the history of athletics with some of the world’s leading runners claiming the title including Lord Sebastian Coe (GBR), Steve Ovett (GBR), Haile Gebrselassie (ETH), Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) and Bernard Lagat (USA).

The iconic race, which was inaugurated in the memory of former News of the World editor Sir Emsley Carr, was last won by a British athlete in 2017 when Jake Wightman claimed the title with a time of 3:54.92.

Wightman, 24, who won both European and Commonwealth 1500m bronze last year, has been confirmed as one of the leading Brits in the field for the Emsley Carr Mile at this year’s Müller Anniversary Games.

One of the highlights of the distance running calendar also takes place tonight in Highgate at the Night of the 10,000m PBS event, where Wightman will be supporting the event by taking over British Athletics’ social media channels.

Edinburgh AC athlete Wightman said: "This is a really special night in the calendar at the Night of the 10,000m and I’m excited to be there in person to be able to take over British Athletics’ social media to help be a part of this great event.

“There will be a massive crowd at Parliament Hill tonight for the Night of the 10,000m for real quality athletics in London, and for me I know that my big night in London comes in a couple of weeks’ time when I’ll race in at the Müller Anniversary Games in The Emsley Carr Mile.

I was buzzing to win the event in 2017 and it had real significance in my confidence and development the following year. On top of that, I know from experience that the support I will receive at the London Stadium is like nothing else, so I’m sure it make all the difference as I take on a world class field."

IAAF President and previous winner of the Emsley Carr Mile, Lord Coe said: “I have fond memories of running in and watching The Emsley Carr Mile. In fact winning it in 1977, beating Filbert Bayi of Tanzania put me on the back pages of the UK national newspapers for the first time. It is one of the must-not-miss running events that attracts audiences from across the world.

“Previous editions of the Emsley Carr Mile have seen some of the biggest names in global athletics compete – and claim the title – and this year looks set to continue that trend as the world’s most iconic middle-distance race comes to the London Stadium.”

The Müller Anniversary Games takes place just ten weeks before the IAAF World Championships in Doha.

The two-day Diamond League event has seen history made on numerous occasions in recent years, with some memorable performances from British names such as Sir Mo Farah, Laura Muir and Dina Asher-Smith, while para athletics stars Kare Adenegan and Sophie Hahn both broke world records at the 2018 edition of the event.

With the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) warmly welcoming the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session to include Breaking on the sports programme, b-boys and b-girls are already sharpening up their moves and groves ready for its inclusion in the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Breaking made its Olympic debut last year at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, but its inclusion on the Paris 2024 programme is the first time any DanceSport discipline has appeared at an Olympic Games.

“This is history for the DanceSport community and the discipline of Breaking,” said WDSF President Shawn Tay. “We are sure Breaking will be an outstanding success in Paris and will add lots of energy, athletic excellence, innovation and youth appeal to the Olympic Games. WDSF, together with the Breaking community, is ready to collaborate closely with Paris 2024 and the IOC to make the Olympic dream of the world’s best b-boys and b-girls come true.”

The Paris 2024 organisers proposed four sports - Breaking, together with Skateboarding, Sport Climbing and Surfing - in response to a new level of flexibility afforded to Olympic Games Host Cities to encourage innovation in the Olympic programme. Host Cities, beginning with Tokyo 2020, now have the option of suggesting new sports and events for inclusion in their edition of the Games that are not binding on future Games hosts.

The new sports were proposed in February by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for inclusion at the XXXIII Olympiad. In March, the IOC Executive Board (EB) gave the green light to the proposal, which was then put to a vote by the IOC Session (the assembly of all IOC members), currently meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

B-boy, Mounir, the Vagabond Crew member who joined the Paris 2024 delegation presenting at the IOC Session, said: “This is historic. We were humble, but we never doubted. A pessimist never changed the world. We started from nothing, we learned how to make more with less, we believed in the impossible and today the impossible becomes possible.”

DJ Renegade, who has been involved in UK breaking since the 1980s, said the proposal for the event to be at the 2024 Olympics was "one of the most exciting things that's happened in our scene.

He said: "People were mentioning this back in 1983".

"Right now people are training in train stations.

"We don't have any gyms or studios, you have to pay for that stuff. It would be nice if there was an academy where you can go and learn about the culture."

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in the French capital from 26 July to 11 August.

British Athletics has announced it has started a ground-breaking new partnership with industry experts PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to improve how the Olympic and Paralympic World Class Programmes work with performance data and analytics.

One of the world’s largest professional service firms, PwC will work with British Athletics’ Olympic and Paralympic World Class Programmes as the Official Data Intelligence Partner to improve the support and value delivered to coaches and athletes through the provision of enhanced information and insights.

PwC will provide a range of services from data acquisition and modelling to reporting, visualisation and advanced analytics, generating insights not previously possible from the full range of data sources available to the Programmes.

The British Athletics World Class Programme is UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded initiative to support the delivery of success at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The partnership with PwC aligns and supports the strategic aim to win more medals in more events at Tokyo 2020 and beyond.

British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black said: “This is an absolutely ground-breaking partnership for British Athletics to work with PwC and I am thrilled to welcome them into the sport.

“The sport of athletics is statistically and data rich, but there are limitations as to how successful it is if it is not recorded and interpreted correctly, and then provided to coaches and athletes in a way that they can make use of it – whether it is in planning a year or altering the focus of their day-to-day training.

“We truly believe that by more effectively and efficiently using data and analytics, British athletes across the Olympic and Paralympic World Class Programmes can be the best prepared in the world.

With the help and support of PwC and their services, our athletes and coaches will have fast and effective access to data and analytics, all in one place, which is something we have up until now not been able to provide.

“The improvements will be gradual but continuous as new capabilities are developed and there is a learning of what can actually be valuable to ultimately help athletes achieve their goals. It is a very exciting time for our sport to have this input.”

Alex Cooke, Data Intelligence Partner at PwC, said: “Our Data Analytics team support many organisations to get more value from their data and gain competitive advantage or disrupt their industries by optimising their insights operating models. Over the years athletics has brought the country many memorable moments and we are delighted to be partnering with British Athletics to ensure, through the use of data insights, we bring more success in the future.”

Jon Andrews, Head of Technology and Investments at PwC, said: “We’re really excited to partner with British Athletics in this initiative. Working with them, we hope to collectively combine the power of technology with human insight to help them and their athletes achieve superior performance. Speed is of the essence to stay ahead and we aim to bring our experience of mining data to give athletes and coaches more objective information to help them make better decisions.”

Former England, Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest footballer, leukaemia survivor and Patron of blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia Geoff Thomas, has announced he will ride the full Tour de France route one day ahead of the professionals for the last time in 2020 to mark 15 years since he was declared in remission from the disease.

Yesterday marked exactly 16 years since Geoff was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia and told he had just three months to live. Luckily, he lived close to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Cure Leukaemia’s co-founder Professor Charlie Craddock CBE. Under his care, Geoff was able to access the latest treatments for this form of blood cancer enabling him to undergo a life-saving stem cell transplant as his sister, Kay, was a perfect match.

Reflecting on this time he said: “I was so lucky. Had I not met Charlie (Professor Craddock), been able to receive the latest treatment for the disease and my sister not been a match I would not be here today. So many patients I met during that time didn’t make it and that’s why I have dedicated my life to giving back ever since.”

During his treatment Geoff drew inspiration and comfort from Lance Armstrong’s book ‘It’s Not About The Bike’ which detailed the American’s own battle with cancer. Geoff continued:

“It gave me hope that there could be a future for me and it’s the reason I took up cycling, and the rest is history!”

In 2005, just months after being declared in remission from blood cancer, Geoff defied the odds and first took on the full Tour de France route, one day ahead of the professionals.

“It was the start of a true love/hate relationship for me! It was incredibly tough but it was the memory of the patients who didn’t make it that drove me on. I made great friends during that challenge in the world of cycling, the likes of Matt Lawton, Neil Ashton, Matt Dickinson and Tom Cary and they have supported me ever since.”

Since then, Geoff has taken on cycling’s toughest challenge three more times to raise funds to support others and in 2020, 30 years after he captained Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Final, he will ride over 3,400km, one day ahead of the likes of Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas with the aim of raising £1m for Cure Leukaemia.

He continued: “Yes this is it! I can’t keep doing these Grand Tour challenges and this feels like the right time. Cure Leukaemia recently announced its nationwide expansion thanks to the UK Charities of the Year partnership with Deutsche Bank. From January 2020, Cure Leukaemia will be funding specialist research nurses across the UK and the funds we raise from GT15 will connect so many more patients with the treatments I was lucky enough to receive 16 years ago.

“Our vision is to accelerate the global progress that is being made in the world of blood cancer and help find effective treatments for all forms of the disease within the next 15 years.”

To raise £1m for Cure Leukaemia, Geoff is looking for 14 amateur cyclists to join him for this ultimate experience next summer.

“I am looking for a team to join me for my last tour. It’s a year away so there is time for people to prepare for this experience. I’m not going to dress it up, it is tough, really tough but it is amazing what people can achieve when they have a focus and determination to succeed. There are no blockers here – young or old, male or female we would like to hear from you.”

Cyclists who are keen in joining Geoff should go to www.GT15.co.uk where they can register their interest. It costs £10,000 per rider to take part initially with a commitment to raise at least a further £20,000.

Geoff added: “It is vital that the fundraising is not forgotten about in this story – it’s why I took up cycling and it’s why I am going through the pain of another Tour. To finish my cycling career knowing that we have raised at least £1m for this fantastic charity would be so special to me.

“We would love a headline sponsor for the event to ensure more funds go to Cure Leukaemia and we would welcome conversations with interested businesses.

“It’s nice that next year will be 30 years since the FA Cup Final as well, bringing everything together in the same year. Perhaps our shirt sponsor from that year might be interested in being a part of this challenge?”

After a unanimously agreed by clubs to conduct a feasibility study into the idea at a shareholders' meeting last month, and in the wake of the massive impact made by England during the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the English Premier League has moved a step closer to taking over the Women's Super League from the Football Association.

It follows recent talks between the Premier League and FA, but no timeframe has yet been proposed.

The FA, who set up the WSL in 2011, has overseen its development, seeing the WSL becoming the only full-time professional competition with 12 teams for 2019-20 with Premier League-affiliated clubs making up 13 of the 22 sides in the women's top two divisions, with the top flight securing a £10m sponsorship deal with Barclays.

Attendances, though, have dropped below an average of 1,000, and some Premier League clubs now feel there is significant scope for growth in sponsorship and broadcasting deals, especially after England reaching the World Cup semi-final - which was watched by record television audiences.

A spokesperson for the FA said: "We can confirm that we are supporting the Premier League in exploring the long-term feasibility of the Premier League running the Women's Super League. This is a purely exploratory project and based on a long term timescale”.

Continuing, the spokesperson said: "The FA is proud that it set up the first European women's professional league and the relevant player pathways as part of its commitment to growing the women's game. We have recently established a joint WSL/Women's Championship Board with the clubs to oversee the future strategy and policy of the professional game.

"It is this Board that will recommend the best way forward to The FA as it determines what is in the best interests of the leagues. However, The FA has always been clear that it is open to an external body running the WSL in the long term, as The FA's remit is to support the game from grassroots to elite teams."

Further to that, it is also understands that talks are ongoing about the possibility of playing multiple matches at Premier League stadiums on the opening weekend of the 2019-20 WSL season, which starts on Saturday, September 7 - during an international break for the men's sides.

Any possible takeover, though, could still be several seasons away.

The sports industry is known to be dominated by men. But Khalia Collier didn't let that stop her from owning her own sports team back in 2011.

At just 23, Collier became the owner and general manager of the St. Louis Surge, the only women's professional basketball team in St. Louis, Missouri, in the USA.

She has always loved basketball since she was a child - and she was good at it.

She used to join basketball teams from grade school, high school, and college. Collier, who finished college with a degree in Marketing, has also been interested in business from seeing her mother, who is an entrepreneur herself

Khalia started thinking about owning a team when she became a player for the Surge. As she continued learning more about team ownership, she thought it would be a great opportunity to buy the team she used to play for.

Aside from the business aspect, it is also important for Collier to "show and prove that a women's franchise is not only viable but sustainable in the market," she said in an interview with Shoppe Black. And it actually happened. She became one of the youngest owners in sports at any level.

Since then, the St. Louis Surge has successfully won five regional championships and two national championships play at Washington University. What's more, she herself is a winner for she is able to inspire other women that they could be leaders as well.

"My responsibility as a woman is to create more opportunities for women that look like me not just providing a platform for professional athletes but leadership and front office positions. Once the door is open it is my responsibility to leave it open for all of the incredible women willing and prepared to work hard to achieve their dreams."