Sir Mo Farah will aim to clinch a Tokyo Olympics place on Saturday when he runs in the European 10,000m Cup at the British Athletics 10,000m Championships in Birmingham in what will be the first time he has raced the distance on a track since winning gold at the Worlds in 2017.

The four-time Olympic medallist must beat the qualifying mark of 27 minutes 28 seconds and finish in the top two. He will race against Marc Scott, who ran 27:10.41 in February.

Scott's time moved him second on the UK all-time rankings behind Farah's national record of 26:46.57.

Farah, who has only raced once in 2021 when he won the Djibouti half-marathon in March, said: "I've missed the track a lot. The 10,000m on the track has been very good to me so I am excited to get back out there and see what I can do." He, and Scott, will be joined at the University of Birmingham Athletics Track by Jake Smith, Emile Cairess, Kristian Jones and Matt Leach in the Great Britain men's team.

The women's team will be led by Eilish McColgan and completed by Amy-Eloise Markovc, Jessica Judd, Jenny Nesbitt, Verity Ockenden and Samantha Harrison. Sir Mo, who won gold over 5,000m and 10,000m at London 2012 and Rio 2016, recently said that he will quit the track after Tokyo.

The rearranged Olympic Games take place between July 23 and August 8 with the men's 10,000m on Friday, July 30.

Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton will host one of snooker’s biggest tournaments next year when the sport’s leading stars contest the Cazoo Players Championship.

The world ranking event will run from February 7 to 13 in 2022 when Aldersley Leisure Village stages a major snooker event for the first time.

Tickets will be on sale from this Friday, May 28th, at 10am, with all details at www.wst.tv/tickets

There is a special half price offer for selected rounds for early bookings, so fans are urged to book fast while availability lasts.

The Cazoo Players Championship will feature an elite field of the top 16 players on the 2021/22 one-year ranking list. John Higgins won the title last season, playing some of the best snooker of his career as he beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-3 in the final, having come through a field of cue kings including Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson. A strong field is expected again next year.

It’s the second of three events in the 2021/22 Cazoo Series and will receive extensive live television coverage on ITV.

A World Snooker Tour (WST) spokesman said: “We are delighted to bring one of our biggest events to Wolverhampton for the first time. We know there is tremendous support for snooker in this area and the Aldersley Leisure Village is a superb venue.

“Any fans who love the exhilaration of live sport should secure their seats quickly as many of the sessions will sell out fast.

“The key element to the Cazoo Players Championship is that the field is the best 16 players of the season so far, so everyone in the line-up is at the top of their game. Every player on the tour starts the season on zero, and battles for every ranking point to earn a place in the extremely prestigious and lucrative Cazoo Series.

“They are events of the highest quality, as John Higgins proved with his incredible performance at the Cazoo Players Championship last year.”

City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for City Environment & Climate Change, Councillor Steve Evans, said: “We are absolutely delighted the World Snooker Tour has chosen Wolverhampton to stage one of its prestigious televised events.

“The successful staging of the Grand Slam of Darts and big-name comedy events at WV Active’s Aldersley Leisure Village showed what a great venue it is – and now it will host some of snooker’s greats.

“This is all part of our overall five-year events strategy to bring the very best in art, music and sport to the city to boost the local economy, create new jobs and build an outstanding cultural reputation.

“2022 is set to be a huge year for events in Wolverhampton with the Cazoo Players Championship adding to British Art Show 9, Creation Day music festival, Commonwealth Games cycling time trial, and the reopening of the refurbished Civic Halls.

WST has led the sporting world in the post-lockdown return of live audiences and will continue to work closely with the UK Government on Covid-19 regulation. Fans can be assured that all necessary precautions will be taken at events to minimise the risk of virus transmission, keeping safety as the highest priority.

Sophie Hahn [T38 100m] and Zak Skinner [T13 100m] both secured European titles on the second day of action at the European Para Athletics Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, adding to Maria Lyle’s [T35 200m] gold medal during the morning session. Meanwhile, there were silver medals for Shaun Burrows [T38 400m] and Danny Sidbury [T54 1500m], and three bronze medals for Polly Maton [T47 long jump], Luke Nuttall [T46 1500m] and Alexander Thomson [T38 400m].

Sophie Hahn (Leon Baptiste, Charnwood) reigned supreme in the women’s T38 100m as she won a third consecutive European gold medal over the short sprint. The world record holder looked in solid form as she won in a time of 12.58 (0.3) ahead of Luka Ekler (HUN) and Margarita Goncharova (RUS).

Olivia Breen (Aston Moore, City of Portsmouth) ran a superb race as she clocked a personal best of 13.01 to finish in fourth position, just 0.02 seconds outside the medals, while Ali Smith (Benke Blomkvist, Guildford & Godalming) was sixth in a time of 13.46.

Hahn said afterwards: “I’m very happy and really pleased with the time. It is a quick track so I could not have asked for much more today to be honest.

“It felt incredible to be competing at a major Championships again. I was a bit nervous on the line because we’ve had nothing for a year and then all of a sudden, we are at a European Championships. So, I’m really happy I could produce that performance.”

In the men’s T13 100m, Zak Skinner (Aston Moore; Loughborough Students) won a surprise gold medal after a blistering performance. The long jumper has been working on his speed work and it certainly paid dividends on the track as the Loughborough-based athlete won his first European title.

Skinner got out of the blocks well and the second half of his race was a masterclass as he moved away from his French opponent, Axel Zorzi, who was the fastest qualifier for the final over the heats earlier in the day.

An animated Skinner said post-race: “I came into these Championships hoping for a medal in the 100m, and then this happened. I felt good out there and I had to execute the race and I knew the gold was there for the taking. I didn’t think that it would actually happen! I felt so good but then I could feel someone on the inside lane, and I was thinking ‘don’t tense’, but every time I thought that there was more tensing.

“A massive thanks to the team and my family, we have worked so hard for this. Every step of the way they have been there, and I am so grateful for them. It makes all so worth it.

“I’m really excited for the long jump. I was scared on that start line, I might not look it, but I was so nervous. If I mess up once in the long jump, I get five more attempts but out in the 100m you are not getting anything back.”

Six years after last representing the British team at the World Championships in Doha, Shaun Burrows (Joe McDonnell; Charnwood) returned to the fold in the men’s T38 400m by winning silver in the men’s T38 400, while Alexander Thomson (Chris Baillie; Victoria Park City of Glasgow) secured the bronze, with Ross Paterson (John Kinder; Red Star) fourth; all three athletes securing personal bests.

Burrows sliced 0.42 seconds off his previous best in an excellent time of 53.02 while Thomson improved his previous best to 54.66 for bronze on his senior international debut. Paterson fought well and also recorded a lifetime best of 55.60.

Burrows said: “I am happy to have run a PB, 53.02. That is a very good time for me. To win the silver medal as well is good, I am happy with my performance today.”

Thomson added: “I didn’t know what to expect today, I just ran my best. The first 200m I felt pretty good, and I was just trying to keep that momentum going through 200m to 300m. The last 100m was all about holding my form but I died a bit. I am so happy to win a bronze medal.”

On his maiden appearance in a British vest, Daniel Sidbury (Christine Parsloe; Sutton & District) clinched the silver medal in the men’s T54 1500m. As multiple Paralympic champion Marcel Hug (SUI) moved away from the field on the opening lap, it was left for the rest of the field to battle for silver and bronze, and the Briton was at the heart of the fight.

Sidbury positioned himself well on the penultimate lap as he led the chasing pack with the inside line. As the metres counted down, the Sutton & District athlete maintained his position and secured a trip to the podium to collect his European silver medal.

“I am pleased to be able to contribute to the British team at these Championships,” he said post-race, adding, “The race feels like a blur. Marcel (Hug) obviously went off and I did think whether I should make a break to go and catch him, but the others didn’t seem to want to do that and work as a group, so I stuck with them. But I’m really pleased to win the silver medal.”

After an injury-disrupted couple of seasons, Polly Maton (Colin Baross; Team Devizes) returned to form in the women’s T47 Long Jump as she won the bronze medal on her final jump, which matched her personal best. In the opening round she jumped 5.27m which was just one centimetre off her personal best. That jump left her in third position after one round for the field, but she was moved down to fourth in round two.

On the final jump, the Briton sat in fourth position, however the world silver medallist is renowned for producing her best under pressure and she delivered once again as she went out to 5.28m to move into bronze by 1cm to match her achievement from 2018.

Maton said afterwards, “I’m thrilled! It equals my PB. I’ve had some nasty injuries over the last two years, one to my left foot, one to my right foot. I loved competing again today – it was an entertaining competition which is exciting for me and everyone watching.

“I seem to make a habit of leaving it to my last jump. It did that in the worlds in 2017 too. I was in fourth and had to jump big to get in the medals. I obviously like doing it that way, I enjoy the pressure of competitions!”

Luke Nuttall (Alison Wyeth; Charnwood) produced the best performance of his young career as he claimed bronze in the T46 1500m with a seven second lifetime best.

Two years ago, Nuttall won silver on his debut at the Europeans in Berlin, and the Charnwood athlete was in supreme form as he crossed the line in 3:55.27, just a few strides behind the best in Europe.

The 19-year-old said, “Coming into the Champs, I didn’t know how the race would be run. The Russian guy took it at a fair pace, and I got dragged around. I’m buzzing with that – a seven second PB, I’m well happy.

“I know I’ve been training really well but I’ve run 4:06 in my first two races of the season, so to go 11 seconds quicker that than is crazy. I’m buzzing to get the bronze medal as well which is why you come to these Championships.”

In the women’s T20 1500m Hannah Taunton (Charlotte Fisher; Taunton) put in a valiant effort as she finished fourth overall in a time of 4:47.33. She set a T20 world record at the Muller British Athletics Championships in 2020, and performed strongly at her first Europeans, positioning herself well in the field. The leading three opened up a gap on the Taunton athlete with 300 metres to go, a margin that kept extending but the British athlete earned her top four slot.

At his second European Para Athletics Championships, Javaughn Parkes (Michelle Nicholas; Birchfield) narrowly missed out on a medal and ran a season best of 12.76 (0.1) for fourth position in the T36 100m. Roman Pavlyk from Ukraine pipped the Birchfield athlete by 0.06 seconds to the bronze medal placing, but it was a solid improvement by Parkes who was fifth three years ago.

Competing in a strong field in the women’s T54 1500m, Mel Woods (Rodger Harkins; Red Star) was fifth in a time of 3:43.61. Having improved her best to 3:30.10 in Arbon, Switzerland recently, this was another high-quality field and top performance for the Scottish athlete.

During the morning session, Maria Lyle (Jamie Bowie, Team East Lothian) secured her third European T35 200m title as she won in a Championship record of 30.75 (-3.4)

British medallists (11):

Gold (4): Columba Blango [Men’s T20 400m], Sophie Hahn [Women’s T38 100m], Maria Lyle [Women’s T35 200m], Zak Skinner [Men’s T13 100m]

Silver (3): Shaun Burrows [Men’s T38 400m], Kyron Duke [Men’s F41 Shot Put], Danny Sidbury [Men’s T54 1500m]

Bronze (4): Ola Abidogun [Men’s T47 100m], Luke Nuttall [Men’s T46 1500m], Emily Stewart [Women’s F38 Discus], Alexander Thomson [Men’s T38 400m]

Team GB and Team England triple jumper Nathan Douglas is to chart progress made during the final 12 months of the Alexander Stadium’s redevelopment in a series of vlogs for Birmingham City Council.

Nathan has been appointed as the council’s official Stadium Redevelopment Correspondent – and has started the assignment with an introductory video available via the Birmingham City Council YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter channels. The eight-time British champion, who trains at the stadium and its High Performance Centre, has competed at the Perry Barr venue many times during his long career, and was keen to tell the story of the site’s redevelopment ahead of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Nathan said: “The revamped Alexander Stadium will be an amazing facility. I wanted to find a way that I could tell the story of how things are improving to as wide an audience as possible.

“Social media is a great way to engage with people, whether they have been athletics fans for years, are interested in the upcoming Commonwealth Games, live in Birmingham or been to the stadium in the past. Over the coming months, I’ll be taking a look behind the scenes and speaking to people who have worked or performed at the venue. I hope the buzz and excitement of the stadium redevelopment and upcoming Games is something I can get across to people who see the vlogs.”

As well as his triple jumping and an enthusiasm to enter the world of vlogging, Nathan has always had a passion for performance psychology which led him to achieve a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science (Psychology) from Loughborough University. Nathan is a certified Peak Performance and Resilience Coach, NLP Practitioner and has been trained in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy at Oxford. Nathan combines his expertise alongside the team at 7Futures to help their corporate clients to build a culture of wellbeing and high performance.

Councillor Ian Ward, Leader of venue owner Birmingham City Council, said: “It’s great to have such a well-respected athlete as Nathan on board for this assignment - I know he is excited by the bold ambition we have for the Alexander Stadium as the centrepiece of leisure, health and wellbeing activity in a regenerated Perry Barr.

“These videos will help inform and excite people in a fun way about the fantastic progress that has been made over the last 12 months on the project and what is going on ahead of the Commonwealth Games.” To find out more about the Alexander Stadium redevelopment, visit the city council’s Perry Barr Regeneration webpages.

Red Bull Street Style, the annual freestyle football world championship is back. 2021 will once again see the most creative, technical and stylish player in each gender crowned Red Bull Street Style World Champion. Launched in 2008 the global contest aims to find the best overall freestyle football players in the world.

Red Bull Street Style is the official world championship of freestyle football, with the contest looking different every year. As freestyle football is influenced strongly by contemporary street lifestyle, art and athletics establishing constant progression and innovative trick creations keeps the world championships fresh year after year.

To celebrate the launch of the world championships 2021 freestyle footballer, Polish star athlete Aguska Mnich (2018 Red Bull Street Style winner), and London based street artist, Captain Kris, came together to create a unique mural that represents movement using the freestyle football concept.

As an imaginative illustrator and street artist heavily influenced by comics, cartoons and popular culture Captain Kris said “It was exciting working with Aguska and taking on a new direction to the art piece was refreshing. Integrating football tricks, such as ‘Around the world’ and ‘Rainbow’, into the art piece was a natural progression of the collaboration, as a lot of my work is centred around pop art themed words, so it only felt right to include these in the football centred mural. Having her kick the ball against the wall to create paint splatters for me to work around added a whole new dimension to the mural, which is something I’ve never seen before”.

The mural took five hours to create and street artist, Captain Kris, who is famed for his distinctive work around East London, often freestyles when creating artwork, allowing his self-expression to create spontaneous additions. The same is true of freestyle footballers, as their self-expression is interpreted in their movements and tricks, which can be beautiful and unique.

Aguska Mnich explains “Red Bull Street Style is all about showing your best personal skills, so working with Captain Kris and using our talents to create a unique art piece together with the inclusion of freestyle football tricks was so thrilling. It is something I’ve never done before, but I enjoyed using my freestyle skills to help create this artwork”.

Aguska is considered one of the most well-known females in freestyle football, renowned for being a solid all-rounder with insane special football skills. She has some very strong lower moves which separates her from a lot of other female freestyle footballers.

The current men’s Red Bull Street Style World Champion Erlend Fagerli added “I personally love the concept of this, and seeing two completely different creative talents come together to create a mural that portrays both art forms is really cool”.

The contest has now launched so whether you are a reigning titleholder or a hungry newcomer to enter the Red Bull Street Style World Championship for your local offline or online qualifiers. The requirements are simple: For the offline qualifiers, go to www.redbullstreetstyle.com to register and participate on location. For the online qualifier videos must be no longer than 60 seconds overall. They also must be in horizontal (landscape) format and without edits. No music is allowed. Everyone aged 16+ is welcome to take part.

This year, Red Bull Street Style has ibis budget on board as its new exclusive hospitality partner. ibis budget will actively follow the competition through the eyes of talented participating athletes on its @ibisbudget Instagram account, while sharing its passion for freestyle football, unveiling tips and sharing fun challenges with the freestyle football fan community.

British sprints star Dina Asher-Smith will fine-tune her preparations for the Olympic Games when she races over 200 metres in the Müller British Grand Prix in Gateshead.

The world champion was clearly not put off by the wet and windy weather at the Müller Grand Prix Gateshead last Sunday when she beat a world-class line-up in the 100m. Asher-Smith, 25, is keen to come back to the same venue later this summer for a competition that will fall just before her departure to Tokyo.

Dina said: “I’m really excited to return to Gateshead on July 13 for the Müller British Grand Prix. Hopefully we will be allowed to have more fans in the stadium and the athletes will get a great send off before they go to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

“My first 100m of 2021 last weekend was against some tough opposition and I’m expecting it to be another exciting race when I go back there in a few weeks’ time.”

The event on was originally due to be held at the London Stadium but has been moved to Gateshead International Stadium due to the repercussions of the pandemic and after an agreement was reached between UK Athletics and the London Legacy Development Corporation.

Gateshead Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and Leisure, Councillor Angela Douglas, said: “We are delighted that athletics will return to Gateshead International Stadium this summer with the Müller British Grand Prix. This is fantastic news for Gateshead and a ringing endorsement of our long-established reputation for hosting major international sporting events.

“It is such a brilliant opportunity to celebrate our great passion for sport in the region and for spectators to get up close to all the action. We look forward to supporting the athletes on their journey to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.”

After successfully welcoming back 2,000 spectators at the Müller Grand Prix Gateshead last weekend (23rd May), British Athletics are hopeful more fans will be able to safely return to the stadium for the Müller British Grand Prix on July 13.