Fast Track Inks New PR Deal for Three Asian Golf Tournaments

Fast Track, cialis an International sports marketing agency, cialis has extended its deal to lead the media programme of three premier golf tournaments in Asia in the final quarter of 2013.

Based out of Hong Kong, pills  Fast Track Asia will continue to provide PR consultancy services for both the Venetian Macau Open and the Thailand Golf Championship, two flagship professional golf tournaments of the Asian Tour.

In addition, Fast Track has been reappointed by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) to deliver the media and communications programme for this year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), held at Nanshan International Golf Club in Shandong Province of China.

Dan Parr, Director at Fast Track Asia, said: “We are naturally delighted to be engaged again to provide PR services for these three hugely influential golf tournaments in Asia with each having a role to play in the development of the sport in the region in their own right.”

He added, “With local expertise and knowledge together with international reach through other Fast Track offices, we are able to promote these tournaments to mature as well as developing golf markets around the world, raising the profiles of these events, and hopefully generating worldwide buzz for them.”

The Venetian Macau Open, which takes place at the Macau Golf & Country Club on 17 to 20 October this year, was won by India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar in 2012. With a 16-year history, the tournament is one of the highlights of Macau’s annual sports calendar. Title-sponsored for the second year in succession by The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel, the total prize fund has been increased to US$800,000.

The third edition of the Thailand Golf Championship is scheduled for 12 to 15 December this year at the magnificent Amata Spring Golf and Country in Chonburi province. Boasting a world class field of international stars and leading Asian payers, last year’s event was won by 2011 Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel with an imperious display of golfing giving him an 11 shot victory.

AXE to Debut First-Ever Super Bowl Commercial

For the first time since its U.S. launch in 2002, for sale AXE, the No. 1 men’s grooming brand in the U.S., will air a 30-second television commercial during Super Bowl XLVII.

The spot is entitled “Lifeguard,” and includes a twist at the end that aligns with a larger creative campaign scheduled for a January 2013 launch.

“As a lifestyle brand synonymous with innovative products and marketing, we are always pushing boundaries into uncharted territories,” said Gaston Vaneri, Brand Director for AXE. “We have some extraordinary news to announce in 2013, taking our interaction with our fans to new heights, so the Super Bowl became the obvious platform to share it with the world.”

The commercial was created by BBH London.

Royal Melbourne Golf Club to Host 2014 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship

Royal Melbourne Golf Club has been confirmed as the host venue for the 2014 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, cheap ed organisers announced before this week’s fourth staging of the prestigious championship in Thailand.

The 2013 event will be held at Nanshan International Golf Club in Shandong province, order China. The inaugural championship in 2009 was held in China before the event moved to Japan in 2010 and Singapore last year.

The annual event is organised by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), the Masters Tournament and The R&A, and offers the winner an invitation to the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. The champion and runner(s)-up earn spots in International Final Qualifying (IFQ) for The Open Championship.

The 2014 event will mark the first time the championship has been held in Australia. Royal Melbourne has hosted many major events including this year’s Women’s Australian Open, the Presidents Cup match between USA and the Internationals in 1998 and last year, and the World Cup in 1959 and 1970.

“Australia will be an exciting new destination for the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship,” said Kwangsoo Hur, President of the APGC. “Royal Melbourne is one of Australia’s and the world’s most famous golf clubs, so we look forward to continuing to work with the club and Golf Australia on what will be a spectacular week.”

John Hopkins, Chairman of Golf Australia, commented: “The 2014 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship will mark a new chapter for the event as it visits our region for the first time,” Hopkins said. “Australia has a proud history of hosting amateur and professional events, and Australians will come out in force to watch the top golfers from all across the Asia-Pacific region. The players can be assured of playing at one of the country’s best and most famous golf clubs.”

The sixth Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship will be held over the Composite Course, which features 12 holes from the West Course and six from the East Course, a layout developed for the 1959 World Cup.

Richard Allen, Captain of Royal Melbourne Golf Club, said: “Royal Melbourne has great experience of hosting tournaments, from club competitions to the world’s top tournaments featuring the biggest stars in the game. We’re proud to host the 2014 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and would like to extend an early warm welcome to players, staff and officials for what will be a special week.”

This week’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship will feature 120 players from the APGC’s 36 member associations. Television coverage will include two hours of live broadcast on each of the four days and a 30-minute highlights show, and will be aired in more than 150 countries, confirming it as the world’s most televised amateur golf tournament.

Weiter Unklarheit am Nürburgring: ADAC meldet vorsorglich Veranstaltungen bei der FIA an

Der ADAC e.V. München hat vorsorglich und fristgerecht bedeutende internationale Motorsportveranstaltungen zum 31 Juli 2012 bei der internationalen Automobilbehörde FIA in Paris angemeldet. Dazu gehören ein DTM-Lauf, capsule das ADAC GT Masters, generic der ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix und das ADAC 24h-Rennen.

“Auch wenn die Situation am Nürburgring weiterhin ungeklärt ist, capsule haben wir im Sinne des Sports die Rennen mit internationalem Prädikat vorsorglich und fristgerecht bei der FIA angemeldet. So stellen wir zumindest formal sicher, dass auch 2013 Rennen von weltweiter Bedeutung in Deutschland stattfinden können. Ob diese allerdings am Nürburgring ausgetragen werden, ist weiterhin noch fraglich”, erklärt ADAC Sportpräsident Hermann Tomczyk. “Sollten Ministerpräsident Kurt Beck und Infrastrukturminister Roger Lewentz nicht schnell eine Lösung im Hinblick auf die bindende Bestätigung der Veranstaltungstermine 2013 und bezüglich des Abschlusses der Veranstaltungsverträge finden, dann könnten die Rennen auch auf anderen Rennstrecken ausgetragen werden.”

Durch die ungeklärte Situation am Nürburgring, Vertragsstreitigkeiten zwischen dem Land Rheinland-Pfalz und den bisherigen Pächtern des Nürburgrings sowie die Insolvenz der Nürburgring GmbH hat der ADAC weiterhin keinen Ansprechpartner, mit dem über Austragung von Rennen für das Jahr 2013 auf dem Nürburgring gesprochen werden kann. Daher hat die ADAC Zentrale in München die Anmeldung der internationalen Automobilprädikate übernommen. Ungeachtet dessen läuft die Zeit ab. Der ADAC in München, wie auch der ADAC Nordrhein und der ADAC Mittelrhein brauchen dringend einen kompetenten und entscheidungsbefugten Ansprechpartner, der dann für die notwendige Rechts- und Vertragssicherheit sorgen kann. 

Barcelona & Valencia Close to Alternating F1 Grand Prixs Deal

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has revealed Barcelona and Valencia have agreed in principle to alternate their Grand Prix races so there is only one event in Spain each year from 2013.

The world economic crisis has bitten hard in Spain, where local administrations are under pressure to make deep budget cuts as part of a new central government austerity drive.

“Barcelona and Valencia have agreed that the best thing is to alternate and now we are trying to decide on the dates,” Ecclestone told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.

“It’s simply a way for us to try and help Valencia and if by alternating with Barcelona it helps them, then it’s a good solution.

“Obviously, the year Valencia does not host the event it would not have to pay anything.”

Local media reported Valencia had been the most reluctant to agree the changes and Vicente Aguilera, the president of Barcelona’s Montmelo circuit, said negotiations were ongoing.

“We are negotiating and we have a positive attitude,” he told sports daily Marca.

“In part because Bernie thinks it is a good idea, and also because we have to find something that is sustainable for the country.

“At this moment nothing is agreed. We are negotiating and there has to be a three-way agreement.”

Ecclestone assured that this year’s Spanish Grand Prix on May 13 in Barcelona and Valencia’s European Grand Prix on June 24th would go ahead as scheduled.

ECB Chairman Calls for ‘total vigilance’ on Corruption

Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board has suggested total vigilance is needed in the sport as cricket attempts to rid itself of continuing corruption.

Clarke is under the impression players should make use of the system now in place to alert the game’s authorities to any attempts to fix any part of the game.

In the aftermath of jailing of three Pakistan Test players and after former Essex player Mervyn Westfield this week admitted accepting £6,000 to spot-fix a match between his county and Durham, Clarke believes efforts should be renewed.

Westfield is to be sentenced on February 10 and the ECB has opened what it calls a reporting window to allow players and officials to give information on past approaches without fear of punishment.

“For all of us in cricket we are now having to come to terms with anything being feasible. The need for being vigilant is total,” said Clarke on BBC Radio Five.

Clarke was adamant corruption should not be allowed in the sport.

He added: “It can’t be allowed to exist in our game. It is so important that this system of informing and saying what is going on, when it is not allowed and it is illegal, actually exists.”

Clarke admitted there might have been a perception that corruption did not exist in the County Championship game.

“I think that many players simply might not have thought seriously about something because they wouldn’t have regarded it as real.”

Clarke added that the ECB would not take any action against Westfield until after he had been sentenced by the judge sitting in his case at the Old Bailey.

World All-Star Classic Exhibition Tour Featuring NBA Players Postponed

The  spanning six games and four-continents featuring two squads of All-Star NBA players is delayed, with Sunday’s scheduled game in San Juan, Puerto Rico, postponed indefinitely.

The other five games on the tour, scheduled for London, Macau and Australia, already had been pushed back until late November. There was hope the game in San Juan could be salvaged and serve as proof to the other venues and investors that Atlanta businessman Cal Darden and his son, Cal Jr., were capable of pulling off the event.

Sources close to the organizers said that as of October 23, contracts had been signed with 18 of the league’s biggest names, including Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade.

Players were promised anywhere from six figures to $1 million to participate, sources told ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard.

Rose and Westbrook withdrew on Tuesday, Rose citing a conflict with the USO Tour he participated in along with his off-season training schedule.

James, Anthony and Paul later decided not to take part, sources with knowledge of the situation told Broussard. The players want to use the lockout to spend more time with their families, and Paul wanted to be available for labor meetings with the NBA’s owners, sources said.

Howard has also backed out, sources told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday.

By Thursday, sources said there were also questions about whether Durant and Bryant planned to participate.

It remained to be seen if the game in Puerto Rico and the rest of the tour would be resurrected in light of NBA commissioner David Stern canceling regular-season games through Nov. 30 after labor talks broke off Friday without a deal.

Tickets already had been selling briskly in Puerto Rico, sources close to the organizers said, but there were no provisions made for refunds if the event was canceled or postponed.

NFL Oppose Players’ Bid to Block Lockout

National Football League (NFL) owners have voiced their opposition to a bid by 10 of the league’s leading players for an order blocking a lockout during collective bargaining, saying the federal court lacks jurisdiction over the dispute.

According to the NFL, only the National Labor Relations Board has the authority to resolve the fight, with owners arguing: “The jurisdictional bar applies as long as this case ‘involves or grows out of’ a labor dispute, a test that is clearly satisfied here.”

Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees led the group that sued the league on March 11 after negotiations to craft a new contract collapsed and the National Football League Players Association said it no longer would function as a union.

Owners declared a lockout hours later, during which players won’t be paid, and teams can’t practice, sign new players or make trades, shutting down the most-watched and wealthiest U.S. sport at midnight.

Players’ attorney Jeffrey L. Kessler said today in a telephone interview: “There’s nothing unexpected in these papers.

“We obviously disagree,” added Kessler.

UCI President Tight Lipped Over Successful Contador Appeal

President of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling’s world governing body, Pat McQuaid refused to comment on the recent decision to clear Alberto Contador, Spain’s three-time Tour de France champion of doping charges.

The case could well drag on four several months if taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and McQuaid stated: “I can’t – and don’t want to – give a personal opinion until the whole affair is finished, and it’s not finished yet.”

The Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) cleared Contador of doping allegations after the Spaniard tested positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol upon winning last year’s Tour de France.

Last month, the RFEC’s Disciplinary Committee proposed a one-year suspension but Contador has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming the substance was in some contaminated meat, and appealed, successfully, and the ban was lifted.

But the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) both have the right to appeal themselves against that decision, in which case the CAS will rule.

McQuaid added: “We still have to get the documents from the Spanish federation about their decision not to sanction Contador translated, and then we’ll discuss it with WADA.

“We’re yet to receive the full documentation, but once we get that we’ll have 30 days to decide whether we appeal or not.”

Barcelona president insists club isn’t facing bankruptcy

The new president of Spanish La Liga champions, Sandro Rosell, has denied the club could be facing bankruptcy despite negotiating a US$188 million bank loan to pay players’ wages.

Rosell, who replaced outgoing president Juan Laporta last week, said the club was in talks with several banks, and that the loan should be secured in the next couple of days. The club has reportedly missed a deadline to pay a number of players and coaches.

However, he dismissed claims the club could go bankrupt, saying: “Our members can be rest assured. The club is not bankrupt. This week we will have everything in place to impose a policy of austerity so we are able to make savings in certain areas and meet very important commitments such as paying the wages of our players, coaches and employees.”

Only last week Barcelona announced a revenue increase of 16 per cent, making it the richest club in the world. However, bonuses paid out to players and coaches also went up by US$50 million.

As well as this, there are concerns over the fact the club’s lucrative television deal with Mediapro is not secured by a bank guarantee. While it has received assurances from the agency, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, payment issues are a concern.

Rosell also admitted that the sale of defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy had been motivated by financial factors.