World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) President Chungwon Choue has hailed the recent 2014 Pan America Para-Taekwondo Championships as well as committing to increasing the Para-Taekwondo calendar. 

The 2014 Pan America Para-Taekwondo Championships drew to a close in Aguascalientes, sale Mexico, recipe as the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) continued to build momentum in its bid for inclusion on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Programme.

The tightly contested Championships were the third of their kind with previous editions having been held in 2010 and 2012 in Monterrey, symptoms Mexico, and Sucre, Bolivia, respectively.

Speaking after the 2014 Pan America Para-Taekwondo Championships, WTF President Chungwon Choue said: “It is great to see elite para-taekwondo championships being held worldwide.

“Para-taekwondo is a global sport practised by athletes from all five IPC regions and so we want to ensure that athletes from across the world have the opportunity to regularly compete in top level competitions. This will not just provide a platform to showcase their talents to our global fan base but will also encourage more people to take up the sport from grassroots through to elite level.

“Taekwondo is universally accessible to people of all ages, genders and races irrespective of whether they have an impairment and we know there is huge potential for further growth. We are 100% committed to increasing the number of para-taekwondo championships in our sporting calendar to unlock this potential. By doing so, we will ultimately improve the quality of sport and strengthen our already impressive depth of field for the benefit of athletes and fans.”

The WTF has also introduced a development fund which allows MNA’s to apply for funding to develop para-taekwondo in their countries and rapidly increase worldwide participation. If para-taekwondo has the honour of being included on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Programme it will unlock Government funding across the WTF’s 206 MNA’s and provide a catalyst for further expansion and growth. 

The final decision on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Programme will be made on 31 January – 01 February 2015.

ExxonMobil have launched a new marketing campaign to commemorate their 20th anniversary of their technical and commercial relationship with McLaren F1.

In honor of the major milestone, the McLaren Formula 1 cars will feature a special livery in Australia that will include both Mobil 1 and Mobil brands.

“To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Mobil 1’s relationship with McLaren, we are looking forward to showcasing a special branding scheme during the first race of the 2014 season,” said Artis Brown, global motorsports manager, Mobil 1. “There is a lot of energy entering this race. Not only are we celebrating our 20th anniversary with McLaren, but we will be welcoming Kevin Magnussen to the team. When you combine these elements with the introduction of the new V-6 engine, this should be a very exciting weekend.”

Jonathan Neale, Chief Operating Officer and Acting CEO of McLaren Mercedes said: “We are privileged to have worked closely with ExxonMobil over a very successful 20 years and counting. During 332 races together we have achieved four world championships, 78 wins, 229 podium finishes and 76 pole positions, which is testament to our powerful technology partnership. Seeing the Mobil fuels branding alongside Mobil 1 on the MP-4 29 is a great recognition of the relationship’s contribution to performance over our two decades together.”

ExxonMobil began its relationship with McLaren in 1995, with its Mobil 1 synthetic lubricant brand, developing new lubricants and fuels designed to help improve the race team’s performance, efficiency and reliability.

“We are proud to celebrate our relationship with McLaren this weekend and we are looking forward to an exciting season,” said Brown.

Soccer great Ronaldo, through his marketing agency, has signed a deal with tennis superstar Rafael Nadal to represent his advertising contracts in Brazil.

The agency said the “non-exclusive” agreement was reached with Goramendi Siglo XXI, which handles the tennis player’s image rights worldwide.

Ronaldo said in a statement, “Nadal is a lot more than just a new partner, he’s an idol that all of us learned to admire for his talent on the courts and for the kind of person that he is.”

The No. 1-ranked Nadal joins Ronaldo’s list of other top sports personalities he manages in Brazil, including Neymar, Rubens Barrichello and Anderson Silva.

MotoGP team Power Electronics Aspar has revealed a new technical agreement with Honda Production Racer machinery.

The Thursday announcement at Phillip Island marks the start of a new era for the Valencia-based team headed up by former racer Jorge Martinez ‘Aspar’, which will switch to the Honda bike from ART machinery. The Honda deal have been confirmed for two seasons as well as the signing of former World Champion Nicky Hayden.

“It is great news for the Power Electronics Aspar Team to have the acquired services of Honda and a rider of the profile of Nicky Hayden,” says team CEO Aspar. “We are taking a huge step forward in terms of quality, prestige and image. We have grown a lot in a short space of time and we are all very excited about this new project with Honda. It is the factory that the Aspar Team first started with back in 1992 and I have great memories of that period. Our objective is to continue being a reference point in the premier class.

“I think the combination of Honda’s MotoGP Production Racer and Nicky Hayden is going to be a very successful one. We are thrilled to be working with a manufacturer with the history that Honda has and a rider like Nicky, a World Champion with huge experience. It will be a big change for us after so many years working with Italian factories, but we have high hopes for this new project. We are up for the challenge and we will give maximum effort to making sure the Power Electronics Aspar Team continues achieving top results.”

In a bid to increase shirt sales, the National Basketball Association is to continue to push their short sleeve shirt idea to teams. 

According to ESPN as many as five teams will wear the short-sleeve jerseys as an alternate jersey for as much as 12 games during next season.

“We are interested in doing more short-sleeve jerseys when it makes sense,” said Patrik Nilsson, president of adidas North America.

Nilsson said Wednesday that adidas is motivated to get more fans wearing jerseys while also innovating the game jersey for the players. The company pays roughly $35 million a year to be the official apparel provider of the league through the 2016-17 season.

Sal LaRocca, the league’s executive vice president of global merchandising, revealed all teams were offered the option to wear short sleeve jerseys but Golden State Warrios were the only ones to trial it last season.

The shirt provides a different option at retail according to LaRocca who suggests this its appeal but added it was unlikely to bypass the sales of the current design of the league’s jersey any time soon.

“The life cycle of our jersey continues to be really strong,” LaRocca said. “Over the last few years, sales of our traditional tank-top basketball jersey has been growing worldwide. But we know that more men are comfortable wearing T-shirts than tank tops, so the idea that part of our consumer base would be interested in wearing a jersey with sleeves makes sense.”

Jay Z Gets Hands On with the NBA

According to ESPN Jay-Z is now licensed to work as an NBA agent for his agency Roc Nation Sports.

Ron Berkowitz, a spokesman for Roc Nation Sports, confirmed the news while also announcing Juan Perez, president of Roc Nation Sports is now certified as well to work as an agent.

Reports have suggested Jay Z has still not sold his less than 1% shares in Brooklyn Nets which would stop him from signing players as owners of NBA teams cannot represent players. 

The first NBA player Jay-Z is expected to sign is Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, who told his agent, Rob Pelinka, in recent days that he would sign with Jay-Z.

Since announcing his intention to start a sports agency a few months ago, Jay-Z’s firm has signed New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano, New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith and former Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins, who recently was selected third by the Tulsa Shock in the WNBA draft.

NFL owners on Tuesday named the San Francisco 49ers’ new Santa Clara stadium as a finalist to host either the 50th Super Bowl in 2016 or the 51st Super Bowl in 2017.

The Niners will compete with the Miami Dolphins, to host Super Bowl L, which will be packed with extra pageantry to mark the historic occasion, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. The loser will go toe-to-toe with Houston, where the Texans play, for the following year’s game, Super Bowl LI.

The owners expect to pick the locations for Super Bowls 50 and 51 in May.

The Super Bowl Advisory Committee picked the short-list of contenders at the fall owners meeting in Chicago on Monday and the owners finalized the three candidates on Tuesday.

This is the first Super Bowl bid process for the $1.2 billion Santa Clara field, which began construction in April and is scheduled to open in 2014. The NFL previously slated the next three Super Bowls for the home fields of the New Orleans Saints (on Feb. 3), the New York Giants and Jets (February 2014) and the Arizona Cardinals (2015).

If successful, it would be the second Super Bowl in Bay Area history. The first was at Stanford Stadium in 1985, when the 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in Super Bowl XIX. California, which has three of the oldest stadiums in the NFL, last hosted the big game in 2003 in San Diego.

“We’ve been working for a long time to get a new stadium built in California,” Goodell said.

The Niners submitted their preliminary plan to the NFL over the summer along with other teams interesting in hosting the two games. CEO Jed York will now put together a selection committee, led by philanthropist Daniel Lurie, to present their bid during the May owners meeting.

As part of an agreement announced five months ago, San Francisco would act as the Super Bowl week host city and could choose to host many of the related events while the actual game will be played at the Santa Clara stadium.

The deal allowed the 49ers to escape its Candlestick Park lease with the city of San Francisco a year early. The team, which will continue to be called the San Francisco 49ers after moving to the South Bay, also wanted to show some love to its historic host city.