The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has agreed to award iCITY sole preferred bidder status to become the long-term tenant of the Press and Broadcast Centres.

iCITY will now have an opportunity over several months to submit credible business plans to show it can deliver the Legacy Corporation’s aspirations for the Press and Broadcast Centre site.

iCITY aims to create a leading centre for technology, doctor design and research with the potential to generate more than 4,000 jobs. The digital hub would harness innovation and creativity in east London. The iCITY vision also has a community focus including a conference centre and a pedestrian square for broadcasting major sporting events, along with cafes, restaurants and bars.

The Legacy Corporation has set iCITY tough but achievable requirements that must be met before any agreement for lease is formally signed.

Gavin Poole, Chief Executive Officer of iCITY, said: “We are delighted that iCITY has been selected as Sole Preferred Bidder for the legacy use of the Press and Broadcast Centres on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This is a unique opportunity to cement Britain’s position as a global leader in innovation and the creative industries.

“iCITY will provide a sustainable legacy for the local community through the creation of thousands of jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities. The incredible track record of start-ups and entrepreneurs in east London is growing at an impressive rate, and this is a chance to provide additional connectivity, capacity, investment and highly advanced infrastructure. I am hugely excited that work can now begin on turning that vision into a reality.”

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “London couldn’t be in a better position to stage the best Games ever with everything ready to go and our legacy plans in great shape. With the future for six out of the eight Olympic Park facilities are already secured, it is now particularly encouraging to see on top of that a substantial bid for the Press and Broadcast Centres that we hope will act as a spring board for major job creation and new opportunities for local people.”

The Press and Broadcast Centres will house 20,000 journalists during the Games. Afterwards, the Broadcast Centre will offer 95,000 sq ft of office space over five floors and 575,000 sq ft of commercial space over two floors. The five storey Press Centre will provide around 317,000 sq ft of prime office space with the potential for retail uses on the ground floor.

Rumours suggested yesterday, unhealthy April 26, therapy that the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Suresh Kalmadi, arrested this week over corruption charges in his role as chairman of the Delhi Commonwealth Games, had been sacked from the post he has held since 1996.

However, reports in India from SportzPower claim that this is not the case and that interim presidency of IOA senior vice president Vijay Kumar Malhotra is legally challengeable and flawed.

Malhotra had stated: “The senior vice-president automatically takes over the duties when the President is not there. In the event of a prolonged absence…the senior vice-president eventually assumes charge.”

However, the President of the Archery Association of India, founder President of the Asian Archery Federation as well as the Commonwealth Archery Foundation, is legally unacceptable as he is over the limit of 70 years that has been set by the Indian government for anyone running a sports body.

In explaining why the meeting called by Malhotra to get himself declared interim president is illegal, a legal expert told SportzPower: “The fact is that Malhotra had convened a word of mouth meeting at his own residence, which is not the IOA office, and hence the meeting has no sanctity. 

“The second point is the categorisation of the meeting: was it a General Body Meeting or a Special General Meeting? Unless the meeting is categorised, it’s structure and quorum cannot be decided upon and hence the minutes of the meeting would show something patently illegal.

“Besides, if you look at the constitution of the IOA, a clear 15 days notice has to be given to convene a Special General Meeting, which has not been done.”

UK sports minister Hugh Robertson has given the green light to potential proposals from English soccer club West Ham to have retractable seating for the Olympic Stadium, provided it can fulfil its promise to athletics.

On Friday, February 11, a decision was made in unanimous fashion by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) to award vital preferred bidder status to the East London club ahead of proposals from rival bidders Tottenham Hotspur.

The Premier League strugglers are now believed to be considering the possible seating solution to ensure the stadium is viable for soccer and athletics with Robertson stating that the proposal was “fair enough.”

As part of their bid to inherit the ground, West Ham promised that the athletics track would be kept in the stadium to enable the venue to be used for a variety of sports and concerts.

In an interview with BBC Radio Five’s Sportsweek, the Olympics minister claimed that he didn’t feel that the issue of the running track being upheld would cause problems to soccer fans at the stadium, and said West Ham could have retractable seating so long as they kept their promises to athletics.

He added: “People tend to think of a 1980s mixed-use stadium. This is a much more modern stadium, the sight lines are much better, the fans are much closer to centre spot than the outer seats at Wembley.

“Anybody who has stood in the middle of where the pitch will be will tell you that it looks much, much better. If West Ham want to bring in retractable seating and can still fulfil the promises they made to athletics then that’s fair enough.”

The OPLC’s backing backing does not mean that West Ham have been awarded the rights to move into the Olympic Stadium post 2012 just yet, but it would be highly unexpected if the decision was not ratified by two government departments and the mayor of London.

Robertson confirmed this matter by revealing that he had studied the papers produced by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), which selected West Ham as the preferred bidder over Tottenham on Friday, and said he had been satisfied the process had been done correctly.

He added: “There is a process to go through but West Ham are clearly in the lead. We want to make a formal announcement to Parliament but we know the clock is ticking and we want to get it done as quickly as possible.”

Istanbul 2020’s bid for the olympics received a boost after the Bid Committee staged a number of publicity events for the 100, buy viagra | 000-plus participants of the intercontinental Istanbul Eurasia Marathon. 

Ahead of the start of the full marathon, Istanbul Governor, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu and the Mayor of Istanbul, Kadir Topba?, led hundreds of young people wearing Istanbul 2020 t-shirts and 100,000 other participants in a Fun Run from Asia to Europe, across the city’s iconic Bosphorus Bridge. Flying high above the Bosphorus was the Istanbul 2020 banner, on one of the rare occasions that anything other than the Turkish national flag had been placed on the Bosphorus Bridge.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) awarded the Istanbul Eurasia Marathon gold label status last year, making it Turkey’s latest sports event to combine elite sport standards with a unique Istanbul flavour: it is the only marathon on the planet to start on one continent and finish on another. This year’s event attracted over 13,000 athletes for the full marathon, an increase of 20% on the previous year.

Istanbul 2020 bid leader, Hasan Arat, commented on the high levels of public support bolstering the bid across Turkey: “This event has been celebrating the very best of Istanbul since 1979 and the Turkish people are extremely passionate about it – as you can see from the incredible turnout today. Sports events in Turkey are always well supported, and that is one of the reasons domestic polls have shown that 87% of people in Istanbul and 83% nationally want to host the Games here. Istanbul 2020 is about to kick off a series of domestic programmes to keep building awareness and enthusiasm for our Olympic bid in Turkey, so I believe those figures will only increase.

“The sports world has seen a marathon bridge two continents today – Istanbul 2020 wants to do that with an entire Olympic and Paralympic Games. Imagine: athletes could sleep in Europe and compete in Asia. That offers the Olympic Movement a brand new, very exciting opportunity.”

General Manager of Spor A.?., Alpaslan Baki Ertekin, on behalf of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said: “We finally made the Istanbul Eurasia Marathon a gold marathon after three years of planning. It is now one of the top 20 marathons in the world. Our next step is for the marathon to become the world’s seventh marathon major by attracting new runners from across the globe.”

The Istanbul Eurasia Marathon participants passed a number of Istanbul’s famous architectural landmarks, including the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The 100,000 participants included a record number of international competitors, after runners registered for the cancelled New York Marathon were invited to enter the Istanbul event for free. In total, 27% of the entrants were from overseas.

According to a study compiled by American bank Goldman Sachs, arthritis  Ukraine will be the only emerging market in the top ten best performing countries at the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The authors of the research The Olympics and Economics 2012 expect Ukrainian athletes to win 9 gold medals (and 27 total) at the high profile sports event.

Explaining the methodic used to produce The Olympics and Economics 2012, the author states: “Ultimately, it appears that gold does go where growth and the overall growth environment are best.” The report quotes Tim Hollingsworth, the Chief Executive of the British Paralympic Association: “When you create a world class environment you are far more likely to create world class athletes.”

The indicator used by Goldman Sachs experts to assess the probability of a country winning a certain amount of medals was the Growth Environment Score. The analysts used income, as well as political conditions, macroeconomic stability, macroeconomic conditions, human capital, technology and the microeconomic environment as reference points.

Ukraine took the tenth position in the Goldman Sachs rating with other countries in the top ten being the USA, China, the UK, Russia, Australia, France, Germany, South Korea, and Italy. In 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing Ukraine scored 11 position on the medal table. Ukrainian athletes won 7 gold medals, 5 silver, and 15 bronze then.

Interestingly, the authors of The Olympics and Economics 2012 singled out the sports, most affected by the economic variables. They are cycling, judo, rowing, and swimming. Though Ukrainian judoka Roman Gontiuk and cycler Lesya Kalitovska did win bronze in Beijing, Ukraine won gold in shooting, archery, fencing, athletics, canoeing, and boxing.

The BBC have announced that it will broadcast the men’s and women’s singles finals at this year’s Wimbledon Championships live in 3D, becoming the first programmes to do so on the British network.

The matches will be played on Saturday 2 July and Sunday 3 July and free-to-air broadcast will be available to anyone who has access to a 3D TV set and HD Channels.

Danielle Nagler, head of BBC HD and 3D, said: “We’re bringing audiences a new way of getting close to the action. I’m sure that 3D will only add to the drama as the world’s greatest players compete for the championship.”

Last year, world number one Rafael Nadal’s victory over Tomas Berdych in the 2010 final was watched by an average of 5.6m viewers, while 2.3m watched the women’s final, in which Serena Williams won her fourth singles title at the event.

BBC executive sport producer Paul Davies added: “This unique 3D transmission is the latest innovation to bring to life all the tension, drama and excitement on one of the most iconic sporting arenas in the world.”

As well as coverage on BBC One, BBC HD and BBC Two, viewers will also be able to follow the tournament via the BBC Sport website and the BBC Red Button.

The broadcaster will no doubt be hoping for another successful run in the competition for local favourite and British number one Andy Murray after he was defeated by eventual champion Nadal in the semi-final stages of last year’s event.

Advisor to UEFA president Michel Platini, William Gaillard has told government officials at a Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into the governance of soccer, that the Football Association (FA) is ‘weaker’ than its counterparts across Europe.

Gaillard argued that the FA has been overwhelmed by the financial clout and high profile of the professional leagues, stating: “There is no doubt that turf wars have damaged English football. The FA is probably in a weaker spot than any other FA in Europe.”

He added that the ‘overwhelming power’ of the Premier League and Football League had unbalanced the English game, saying: “In other countries, there is a more balanced situation. In most other countries, the professional game has a minority position.

“English professional football has been enormously successful in producing revenues and building up the game and we have to be grateful to the Premier League and Football League for that.

“At the same time this has not resulted in a better situation for English football in general and performances of the national team have not been outstanding.”

Gaillard went on to recommend that England should adopt the football model used in the Netherlands – ‘an excellent grass-roots model’ – continuing: “They should have a full-time technical director – that’s what exists in most other good educational models in Europe.”