The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, medic a road race mixed with live musical performances, recipe has announced Liverpool will be its latest location.

Competitor Group, here Inc. (CGI), which runs the series revealed the Rock ‘n’ Roll Liverpool Marathon & ½ Marathon will take place next spring on Sunday, May 25, 2014. 

“It’s tremendously exciting for us to enter into a partnership with the City of Liverpool, which has a musical history that is unmatched in the UK,” said Tom Godfrey, General Manager of Competitor Group Europe. “Not only will runners enjoy a world-class marathon and half-marathon through the streets of Liverpool, but the timing is superb with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Beatles’ Invasion of America taking place throughout the year.”

The marathon and half-marathon courses will start and finish along Liverpool’s spectacular waterfront, featuring scenic views of its historic docks, rich architecture, spectacular museums and numerous cultural attractions along the course. Live bands interspersed with fanfare and entertainment and will line the route, culminating the race experience with a celebratory finish line festival and post race concert.

“It is a real coup for Liverpool to have secured the services of the Competitor Group,” said Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool. “They have a fantastic track record in putting on top quality, exciting events that have a distinctly local flavour and attract large numbers of competitors and spectators from near and far. Liverpool is known the world over for music and sport, and there is nowhere better to bring them both together than our city.”

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series started as a single race in 1998, and is now the World’s Largest Running Series that has grown to include a global tour of 31 events in 2013. 

Football Federation Australia (FFA) and the German Football Association – Deutscher Fussball-Bund (DFB) – have reunited following the renewal of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in Sydney today.

The MOU, ampoule signed by FFA CEO David Gallop and DFB Head of International Relations Markus Weidner, anabolics identifies a number of areas of collaboration between the countries including football development, management and hosting major events.

“Germany is a great football nation with a proud record of success over many years,” said Mr Gallop.

“The Bundesliga and Frauen-Bundesliga are top-class, the community of grassroots clubs is the envy of many other aspiring football nations, and Germany continues to produce leading male and female teams and coaches. There is much we can learn from the DFB.”

DFB Head of International Relations, Markus Weidner, praised the success of the Hyundai A-League and the great progress being made in Australian football.

“The amazing success of the A-League this year has been noted in Germany and throughout Europe – more and more elite European players are interested in playing here,” said Mr Weidner.

“Take this with the continued qualification by both Men’s and Women’s Australian National Teams for FIFA competitions and there can be no doubt Australia is making great strides – it has the potential to become a true power in world football.”

The MOU incorporates the sharing of technical information and coach development, the exchange of information and best practices in football management, the possibility of friendly international matches and the transfer of knowledge in the lead up to AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015.

“I have no doubt that Australia will deliver a spectacular AFC Asian Cup in 2015 which will not only be a world-class event, but will be a true festival of football for the Asian region,” said Weidner who also met with Asian Cup LOC CEO Michael Brown today.

“From the plans I have seen, Australia is quite advanced in its planning for the Asian Cup and on-track for success and however we can help, we will.”

Read a full interview with Michael Brown here >>

The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) has appointed TSE Consulting, ailment the international management consulting firm specialised in sport, and to expand wrestling worldwide.

Their initial agreement covers a period of 12-months starting in April 2013.

There is widespread discussion throughout the wrestling community suggesting various changes be made to FILA and the sport itself. FILA believes that putting a strategic plan in place will ensure that the leadership remains focused and that a common framework is created within which the sport, sale represented by the national governing bodies around the world, can work together towards common goals for the future.

TSE has vast experience working with international federations on their strategic planning. For example, they lead the development and implementation for both the IAAF Athletics World Plan and the World Archery Plan, among many other organisations at both the international and national level.

Acting President of FILA, Mr. Nenad Lalovic, commented: “We need to renew our organisation and our sport to ensure a stronger future. A long term strategic plan is exactly what we need right now to deal with the challenges that we are faced with. TSE Consulting was recommended to us from a variety of sources and their extensive experience working with other international sports organisations speaks for itself. It is good for our sport to be working with such professionals and I believe that the future for wrestling will benefit tremendously.”

Mr. Lars Haue-Pedersen, TSE Managing Director, commented: “The development of a new strategic plan for not only FILA, but for the sport worldwide, is a fantastic opportunity. It will modernize the sport and ensure it remains relevant for a broad audience and the various worldwide stakeholders in the coming years. Strategic planning is often difficult for a sports organisation as it requires a lot of dedication and commitment to change. Wrestling is ready for this challenge and we look forward to working with them.”

London Welsh have confirmed they are not currently in negotiations over the purchase of the Kassam Stadium – their home stadium in Oxford.

This statement is subsequent to the lead story this morning on the ‘BBC Radio Oxford Breakfast Show’ with Phil Gayle. This news item referred to a recent radio interview with John Taylor, former Managing Director of London Welsh, who was quoted as saying that the club were in active negotiations to look at the possibility of buying the Kassam. This information is incorrect according to the Rugby Union side.

Tony Copsey CEO of London Welsh has replied today: “There is no doubt that we as a club have enjoyed a very successful start to playing our home matches at the Kassam Stadium. We have worked hard to begin bedding into the local community in Oxfordshire.

“Achieving an over 10,000 crowd at the recent Wasp’s match, supports our belief that there is a good appetite for Rugby in the Oxfordshire area. However any talk of us as a club buying the Kassam, is premature at best. Our immediate focus is on Premiership survival and developing our club as a business to compete within the top echelons of English Rugby. Certainly any purchase of the Kassam in the future, if we remain in the Premiership, would be something we would consider, but not without consultation with many stake holders including Oxford United Football Club.”

The International Rugby Board has confirmed that the next two editions of its premier age-grade tournament, the IRB Junior World Championship, will be held in New Zealand and Italy in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

While it will be the first time that New Zealand will have the honour of hosting the IRB Junior World Championship, it will be the second time the tournament visits Italy after a hugely successful 2011 edition in the Veneto Region.

New Zealand won the prestigious Under 20 title four times in succession and will hope to reclaim the crown they lost to South Africa in 2012, in order to welcome the world’s best teams to their shores as defending champions in 2014.

The awarding of the next two editions of the showcase global age-grade event by the IRB Council after a robust tender process, reaffirms the IRB’s commitment to provide future hosts with a longer lead-in time to maximise the benefits of delivering and hosting an event that is firmly established on the international Rugby calendar.

IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset welcomed the decision and said that the announcement is set to usher in a stellar future for the IRB Junior World Championship, following a record-breaking event in South Africa in 2012 and what promises to be a spectacular tournament in northern France in 2013.

“We are delighted to announce that New Zealand and Italy will be hosting the IRB Junior World Championship in 2014 and 2015 respectively. I’m sure that the teams and travelling fans will be treated to high-quality tournaments set against a backdrop of outstanding hospitality and atmosphere in both countries,” said Lapasset.

“The IRB Junior World Championship, which continues to break new ground in broadcast and attendance records year-on-year, is hugely important to the IRB in terms of providing a competition and education platform for the next generation of stars to showcase their skills on the international stage and develop into truly elite players.”

“New Zealand and Italy certainly have all the facilities and infrastructure to ensure that the tournament will be organised to a very high standard, which is vital for its further growth.”

“The strategic decision to announce future hosts well in advance will give the respective Unions the best-possible platform to prepare an exceptional event for the future stars of world Rugby and maximise the benefits and impacts of hosting this wonderful event to attract more men, women and children to the sport.”

The announcement of host country for the 2016 tournament will be made at a later date.

New Zealand will welcome the world’s best Under 20 players to its shores in 2014 less than three years after the phenomenally successful Rugby World Cup 2011 and the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) is keen to build on that momentum.

NZRU Chief Executive Steve Tew said: “We are very proud to be given the rights to host yet another important tournament in the international Rugby calendar. We proved to the world last year how well we as a nation could deliver a complex global sporting event and I am sure we will again deliver an excellent tournament that does the country proud.”

Matches will be played in the Auckland region, at North Harbour Stadium in Albany and the ECOLight Stadium in Pukekohe. Eden Park is also being considered as a possible venue for the final.

Rugby World Cup winner and former IRB Junior Player of the Year Aaron Cruden is one of more than 180 players who have graduated from the IRB Junior World Championship to the Test arena since the inaugural tournament in 2008.

The All Black fly half captained New Zealand to the JWC title in 2009 and just two years later was part of the team that lifted the Webb Ellis Cup on home soil, so is excited by the prospect of New Zealand hosting the 2014 tournament.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for all players as the Junior World Championship provides a real springboard to higher honours. It certainly helped me to go on and realise my dream of becoming an All Black,” said Cruden, one of nine All Blacks to have cut their teeth at JWC level.

“New Zealand really turned it on for players from around the world at Rugby World Cup 2011 and I know we’ll be great hosts again in 2014.”

Italy will host the next edition just months before Rugby World Cup 2015 kicks off and looks set to whet the appetite for what is going to be an action-packed year for world-class Rugby.

“To host again the IRB Junior World Championship in Italy in 2015 is a great honour and privilege for us,” said Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) President Alfredo Gavazzi.

“The 2011 tournament in the Veneto Region was very successful and proved how Rugby has grown in our country at all levels of the game. We are committed to improving the quality of the Championship we hosted in 2011, both in terms of figures and organising standards.”

“This is going to be both a privilege and a challenge for our Union. Our focus will be delivering an unforgettable edition of the world’s top junior Rugby tournament to our country and to the whole Rugby family, while also showing that Italy is now ready to host more and more prestigious Rugby events.”

Thirteen players have graduated from the IRB Junior World Championship to Test Rugby with Italy, the most capped of them being former Under 20 captain Tommaso Benvenuti.

“The tournament was a great experience for me, both as a player and a young man. It represents a key moment in the career of emerging players who want to develop at the highest level,” said Benvenuti.

“I’m especially happy to know that in 2015 many young, talented Italian players will be allowed to experience such an important moment in front of their home crowd.”

Australian architect Bob Harrison is to build a world-class 18-hole golf course on the small Scottish Hebridean island of Jura.

The course will become part of the 14, anabolics 000-acre Ardfin Estate, unhealthy which occupies the southern tip of an island best known for its single malt scotch whiskey and with a current population of just 180. In announcing the new development Harrison described the Ardfin site as the “most beautiful I have ever seen in my time in golf”.

Harrison is one of Australia’s most respected golf course architects, sale having designed 9 of the country’s Top 100 courses during his tenure as lead designer with Greg Norman Golf Course Design – including 3 of the Top 10. Four of his courses were ranked among the Top 100 in the world outside the USA (2012) by Golf Digest Magazine.

A 30-year industry veteran, Harrison noted that he had been fortunate over the years to work on some spectacular sites in Asia, the USA and Australia, but said “Nothing I’ve seen anywhere in the world competes with the sheer beauty of the Jura site. I love Scotland in general and, by a pleasant coincidence, had been a devoted fan of The Machrie Golf Course on nearby Islay for many years. Jura has become my favourite place on earth.”

The routing at Ardfin will be arranged in two loops along the edge of a series of elevated bluffs. There will be spectacular views across the ocean from every corner of the property. Designed to cause minimal disturbance to the coastal landscape, Harrison’s holes will be ‘dropped’ onto existing fields, and constructed without substantially modifying the form of the land.

Harrison stresses the determination to remain naturalistic by “preserving all of the existing burns which cross the fields, and the large areas of particularly sensitive wilderness (such as wetlands) even where they lie within the playing areas of individual golf holes. Ancient stone walls on the site will be incorporated into the design, while new walls along with the beautiful cliffs will dictate the strategy for many holes by asking players to choose a brave line if they hope to reach a short par 4 or gain a better angle of approach. The strategy in many places will resemble holes like the 14th at St Andrews and the 13th at North Berwick.”

Olympic sponsor adidas have agreed a deal with the Metro to have cover wraps on every edition of the English publication during the Olympics, help at a cost of £2.25m ($3.52m): making it the largest print campaign Adidas has ever run.

The cover will run on the 17 ‘main’ days of the Olympics, starting tomorrow, and will feature illustrations of stars such as Jessica Ennis, Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Tom Daley; each scheduled to appear on the day that pictured athlete is competing.

The campaign was created by ad agency Sid Lee, with media buying handled by Carat.

Nick Craggs, UK marketing director at adidas, told the Guardian: “A consecutive cover wrap of this scale has never been done before, and demonstrates our commitment to driving stand-out as a partner of London 2012.”

Arcadius Sports Ltd have announced it has reached agreement to acquire a minority interest in RPD Motorsport Ltd (“RPD Motorsport”) for an undisclosed fee.

RPD Motorsport, cheap pills founded in 2007 is an Essex based racing team currently focused on the Formula Renault series in the United Kingdom as well as providing technical training courses in motorsport and car rebuild services. RPD Motorsport has competed in the BARC Formula Renault Series over the past few seasons and hopes to expand to run additionally in the newly formed, doctor live televised Formula Renault Junior Series in 2012.

The Company will acquire a minority shareholding in return for the injection of an undisclosed amount of capital allowing RPD Motorsport to grow its business and provide a wider range of options to its clients both for full season racing and testing programs as well as one-off test days. RPD Motorsport is currently looking for drivers to participate in the BARC Formula Renault and Formula Renault Junior Series for 2012.

Chris Starling of Arcadius Sports, said: “We have been incredibly impressed with the RPD Motorsport team as we have worked with them over the past year. Despite being formed in 2007 the team has managed to develop a reputation for providing a high quality service and we believe the team has the potential to grow over the next few years both within the Formula Renault series and beyond and we are delighted to have signed an agreement to assist in their development. The RPD team has worked incredibly well with our own drivers in 2011 so we are confident of the high standards they have set themselves”