Athletics Canada (AC) has awarded the National 21.1K Road Race Championships to Calgary for for the years of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

“This honour should come as no surprise,” said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. “I know Calgarians look forward to welcoming racers from across the country who will come here to compete in the championships.”

Already the largest race on the prairies, the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon has become a draw for elite athletes to compete with the best. To recognize the high performance athletes, organizers now offer the top prize purse west of Toronto with more than $52,000 up for grabs.

“As Canada’s longest running marathon, we see our event being the logical host for convening the best in our sport,” says Calgary Marathon Society (CMS) Chair, Dan Ouimet. “We’re proud to partner with Athletics Canada to build this platform to support high performance in Canada.”

Following the 50th Anniversary of the Calgary Marathon on June 1, event organizers will work with Athletics Canada to bring the best in the country to compete in the Canadian 21.1 Championship race in Calgary on June 7, 2015.

“Athletics Canada is excited to begin work with the Calgary Marathon Society and their awesome team in developing a world class event. Athletics Canada is committed to being increasingly involved in the road running community, creating a great experience for runners of all abilities,” said Rob Guy, Chief Executive Officer.

Organizers teamed up with the Calgary Sport Tourism Authority and Tourism Calgary for the successful bid, which will bring runners from coast to coast to experience the race weekend and Calgary’s renowned western hospitality.

“The important connection between high performance and recreational sport has long been recognized and celebrated in Calgary,” said Cindy Ady, Tourism Calgary CEO. “We are excited that Athletics Canada has recognized the strength of the supporting partnerships and organization behind Canada’s longest running marathon, and entrusted Calgary with the National 21.1K Road Race Championship.”

Texas Motor Speedway has unveiled a partnership with PrimeSport, the leader in providing direct access to the biggest sporting events.

The deal will provide both fans living and visiting the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex with the rare opportunity to check off two major sporting events off their bucket lists from April 5-7.

PrimeSport has constructed ticket packages that will allow sports fans to take in the Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race – the largest-attended, single-day sporting event in Texas – on Sunday, April 6, and sandwich the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball semifinals on Saturday, April 5, and championship on Monday, April 7, at AT&T Stadium around the stock car racing spectacle.

Texas Motor Speedway also adjusted its 2014 race weekend schedule to avoid any direct conflict with the basketball games and provide the ultimate weekend for both fans and visiting sponsors and their special guests. Typically, the April Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway is a Saturday evening race, but the race has been moved to Sunday afternoon just for this year.

“This is going to be a fantastic weekend for fans, sponsors and companies to have a full slate of events that weekend,” Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said. “It is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of this rare opportunity where two major sports are showcasing their best events, in the same market, over the span of a few days. I couldn’t think of a better way for everyone to mark these two events off of their bucket list.”

New Orleans, Indianapolis and Minneapolis are on the shortlist to host the 2018 Super Bowl it has been revealed.

New Orleans and Indianapolis have been the site of the past two Super Bowls while Minneapolis hasn’t hosted the prestigious event in two decaades.

Those cities were selected from a pool of six at the owners’ meetings Tuesday. Should Lucas Oil Stadium get the game, it would be the first cold-weather stadium to host two Super Bowls.

“It proves that Indianapolis is really a unique city, being a medium-sized market in a colder market, without 80 degrees and beaches,” Colts owner Jim Irsay said. “I think we have the unique ability in Indianapolis to really deliver a Super Bowl that gets pulled off in a way that’s special.”

New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls, including last February’s game that was interrupted by a blackout. 

“The Super Bowl is a celebration of unparalleled magnitude. What better time for New Orleans to host its record 11th Super Bowl than during a party 300 years in the making?” Jay Cicero, Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation president and CEO, said of the city’s 2018 tricentennial.

Minneapolis last hosted the title game in January 1992. A $975 million stadium is going to be built in downtown Minneapolis, with the projected opening coming in 2016.

The NFL often rewards a city for building a new stadium with a Super Bowl, as was done in recent years for Detroit, the Phoenix area, the Dallas area, and Indianapolis.

“The Vikings organization and our political leaders in Minnesota fought a long battle, spent more than 12 years to secure the new stadium for the team and the state,” said Lester Bagley the vice president for public affairs and stadium development for the Vikings, “and during that long and contentious debate the Vikings made a commitment to take the lead and advocate with the NFL to host the Super Bowl 2018 in Minneapolis.

“Minnesota stepped up to deliver a great new stadium, and we will push hard to deliver the reward.”

The 2018 Super Bowl will be awarded next May. The next four Super Bowls are in New Jersey, Arizona, Santa Clara, Calif., and Houston.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation also know as Livestrong is set cut all ties to the disgraced cyclist by officially dropping his name from its title.

Having gone by the Livestrong moniker for some time, order the Lance Armstrong Foundation will now be known officially as the Livestrong Foundation in the latest move by the charity to separate itself from its founder.

The UCI last month stripped the American of his seven Tour de France titles after the U.S. Anti-doping Agency disclosed evidence that he and his teammates used performance enhancing drugs.

The name change was approved by the Texas Secretary of State on October 30, adiposity said Katherine McLane, case a spokeswoman for the Foundation.

Last week Armstrong resigned from the Foundation’s board of directors. He had previously stepped down as chairman.

“All of us — especially Lance — wanted Livestrong to have a presence that was bigger than its founder,” Mark McKinnon, a member of the Livestrong board that Armstrong vacated last month, told Reuters. “We knew that in order to make the most profound and lasting impact for cancer survivors, the cause and the organization had to have its own persona. That’s exactly what Livestrong has become and Lance helped shape that effort.”

McLane said she doesn’t think the move will diminish the Livestrong brand, which they have spent years building up, in part, by raising money for cancer survivor programs.

The Football Association have warned fans not use unauthorised websites in buying Olympic tickets for Team GB matches.

Some supporters have reported a United States-based website offering tickets for the double-header at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium on Friday, ambulance July 20 at hugely inflated prices.

An FA spokesman said: “The FA would strongly recommend to all supporters only to buy through official channels.

“As the only warm-up match for both Great Britain football squads prior to the Olympics, this is the last chance for fans to see the teams live and we don’t want anyone to be disappointed.”

Luxembourg Boxing Federation, capsule who have sanctioned the Haye v Chisora grudge match, have issued legal proceedings against British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) since they are not happy at all with the organisation’s behaviour towards the fight.

Former WBA heavyweight champion, David Haye, will lock horns with former British heavyweight champion, Dereck Chisora, on July 14 at the West Ham’s Upton Park Stadium in east London but their much-anticipated fight, which is fuelled by bad blood. 

“The Luxembourg Boxing Federation and a number of licence holders have issued legal proceedings against the British Boxing Board of Control in relation to its behaviour over the Haye v Chisora fight on 14 July 2012,” read a statement from the Luxembourg board.

Both Haye and Chisora don’t have any boxing licence with them because they literally came down to blows in Munich in February, when they clashed at a post-fight press conference which followed Chisora’s loss to Vitali Klitschko.

This is the main reason why BBBoC doesn’t want the fight to take place. However, the Luxembourg board believes this is a fight which everyone wants to see. The board has claimed that the fight will take place and there won’t be any problems.

“This is not something anyone wanted to do and neither is it a step we took lightly, but we felt we were left with no option.”

“The Board has admitted that it can do nothing legally to stop the fight but it is still threatening to call its licence-holders to account for their involvement.

“The fight is going ahead on 14 July and over 28,000 tickets have been sold. This is a fight that the public want to see and is being broadcast live in the UK on BoxNation, EPIX in America, Sky Germany and in more the 60 countries.”

TeamFanShop, erectile Inc., the industry leader of collegiate e-commerce solutions, has announced a new multi-year agreement with Learfield Sports’ Sooner Sports Properties, the exclusive multimedia rights holder for University of Oklahoma Athletics.

TeamFanShop is the retail syndication arm of Fanatics, Inc., the world’s largest online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise, and for more than a decade has serviced the sports industry with proficiency in online merchandising. The extended agreement includes all elements of the original arrangement such as e-commerce, merchandising, manufacturing, customer and fulfillment services.

The Oklahoma Sooners’ official online store,Shop.SoonerSports.com, showcases an extensive selection of sports apparel and gear totaling more than 2300 licensed products across quality name brands like Nike. A complete line of merchandise is in stock and ready to ship for men, women and kids of all ages and sizes, including t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, jerseys, tailgating gear and more.

Sooners’ fans and alumni will continue to enjoy exceptional customer service policies that include an entire year for returns, low cost shipping, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The Oklahoma online store platform provides safe shopping with security and fraud prevention, along with state-of-the-art encryption technology to protect customers’ personal information.

“TeamFanShop has done an outstanding job of providing e-commerce and fulfillment services to the Sooners’ online store since 2009, and it continues to stand out to our organization as the best-in-class online retailer,” said Eric Barnhart, Sooner Sports Properties’ general manager. “Because of the prominence of Oklahoma Athletics, the Sooners needed a viable partner providing an all-encompassing online merchandising solution. In our opinion, TeamFanShop delivers just that and more, which is one of the many reasons why we chose them a second time around.”

Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Fanatics, Brian Swallow, added: “It is an exciting moment for any company when you partner with such an acclaimed organization as Oklahoma, and watch your services exceed their expectations. For the last couple of years, OU has been one of our top converting college partners out of more than 90 collegiate sites. We highly respect what the University of Oklahoma stands for and look forward to extending ourrelationship for years to come.”

by Ismail Uddin