Athletics
Mo Farah has announced he will compete at the Birmingham Diamond League meeting on June 5 as he gears up for the defence of his two Olympic titles in Rio. The Olympic and world champion over 5,000 and 10,000 metres has not confirmed over what distance he will race at the Alexander Stadium.
Farah said: “The Birmingham Diamond League will be my first big European track race of 2016.”
Boxing
Amir Khan has confirmed he will fight the Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for the WBC middleweight title on May 7 in Las Vegas.
The 29-year-old from Bolton will move up to a catchweight of 155lbs to fight Alvarez, who has only been beaten once in his 48-fight career: on a majority decision by Floyd Mayweather in September 2013.
Khan confirmed the fight on February 2, through his Twitter account. He wrote: “Delighted to announce I will be fighting @Canelo May 7th Cinco De Mayo, Las Vegas for the 155lbs @WBCBoxing title!”
The fight, which will be promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, will be Alvarez’s first defence of the title he won in November against Miguel Cotto.
Football
Leicester is set to offer Riyad Mahrez a new contract in the summer to see off interest from the Premier League’s top clubs.
The Algerian has had a sensational season, helping the Foxes lead the table by five points with 13 games to play. Mahrez moved to the King Power Stadium in January 2014 from Le Havre for £400,000 and has enjoyed a remarkable rise.
He scored his 14th league goal (February 6) of the season and provided his 10th assist to help the leaders beat Man City 3-1 at the Etihad.
In January, Chelsea was linked with a £20m move for the 24-year-old as a possible replacement for Eden Hazard.
But according to the Daily Mail, Leicester wants to tie down Mahrez to a long-term deal with a significant pay rise. It is claimed talks will not start until the summer but with Jamie Vardy signing a new deal with £70,000-per-week last week, there is a desire to extend Mahrez’s contract too.
Arsenal is reportedly confident Mesut Ozil will commit his long-term future to the club rather than succumb to overtures from Barcelona. Reports in Spain and Italy have suggested that the Spanish champions are keen to provide Ozil with a route back to La Liga where he excelled with Real Madrid before joining Arsenal. However, it’s reported that Arsenal has had no indications that Ozil is unhappy at the Emiratea and they see no barrier, even interest from Barcelona, that will stop the World Cup winning Germany international from agreeing a new contract and remaining beyond the current campaign.
The 27-year-old’s current deal runs until 2018, giving Arsenal the time to work on reaching a satisfactory agreement with Ozil on a new deal.
Fifia World Ranking: Turkey has moved into 20th place in the latest FIFA World Rankings. The World Football governing body updated their rankings on their official website on February 4.
Turkey booked a place in the European Championships after consecutive victories over the Netherlands, Czech Republic and finally Iceland.Turkey had a 2.7 percent chance of making the summer tournament going into the Czech game but managed to turn round their fortunes and booked a place in Euro 2016 with a last minute free-kick from Selcuk Inan to beat Iceland.
Bosnia and Herzegovina remains 21st in the ranking. Belgium remains the top-ranked soccer team in the world, with 1,370 points. Germany bagged 1,347 points to keep the second position, while third-place Chile garnered 1,293 points. Brazil also upheld its place and stood fourth with 1,251 points
Tennis
Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza clinched their first Australian Open doubles title last month with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over the Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.
It was the 12th grand slam women’s doubles title for Hingis and the third for India’s Mirza, all of which have come with the Swiss over the past year. The world No1 doubles pairing, who have now won 36 successive matches, are also the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions. “Thanks to my partner, we have had an incredible year,” Mirza said. “We keep going and it’s great to have all these records with you.”