Athletics

An extraordinary showcase of grit and excellence will occur when top para-athletes including Paralympic and world champions gather in Dubai during the 16th Fazza Para Athletics Grand Prix – Dubai 2025 running from 10-13 February.  The season opening event for the 2025 Fazza International Championships for People of Determination will feature athletes from 52 nations totaling approximately 400 para-athletes according to Tuesday’s announcement at the grand launch press conference.  The World Para Athletics Grand Prix calendar begins with the season's first championship event. 

Elaine Thompson-Herah: Double Olympic champion feels new women's 100m record is within reach Double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah feels a new women's 100m world record is within reach as she prepares for the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Jamaican, 29, ran 10.54 seconds at the Eugene Diamond League last Saturday - the second fastest time in history. Only American Florence Griffith-Joyner has run faster, when she set her world record of 10.49 seconds in 1988. The meet in Switzerland takes place on Thursday.

The 2022 London Marathon will take place on Sunday, 2 October as the event is moved from its traditional April date for a third successive year. Event director Hugh Brasher confirmed the race has been moved to allow for the "best chances" of a full-capacity event, including crowds. Shura Kitata won the men's elite race in 2020, while Brigid Kosgei defended her women's title, but there were no crowds or fun runners because of the coronavirus pandemic. "The London Marathon is an extraordinary

Qatari sprinter Abdalelah Haroun has died after a car crash in Doha, aged 24.Haroun won the bronze medal in the 400m at the 2017 World Championships in London, and was seeking to qualify for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He also won silver in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships in 2016, and double gold in the 400m and 4x400m at the Asian Games in 2018."Qatar sports and athletics, on a global level, lost a great hero," said Qatar Athletics Federation chairman

American middle distance runner Shelby Houlihan has been banned from athletics for four years after testing positive for a prohibited substance - which she blamed on a burrito. The 28-year-old says she was told in January the anabolic steroid nandrolone had been found in a doping sample. Olympian Houlihan said it may have come from eating a pork burrito, which she said could lead to a false positive for nandrolone, the night before her test. She has denied ever doping. The Athletics Integrity

Olympic long jump silver medallist Luvo Manyonga has been banned for four years after failing to meet whereabouts criteria three times in 12 months. The South African missed a doping test in November 2019, and made two filing failures in April and October 2020. As it is a second violation of the anti-doping code by the 30-year-old, he has been given double the normal two-year ban for whereabouts failures. He was banned for 18 months in 2012 for testing positive for crystal meth.

Legendary Indian sprinter Milkha Singh died on Friday due to post-Covid complications. He was being treated at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research. The 91-year-old had tested positive for COVID-19 on May 19 but was in home isolation at his Chandigarh residence after revealing that he was asymptomatic. However, a few days later on May 24, the legendary athlete was admitted to the ICU of Mohali's Fortis hospital due to "COVID pneumonia". He was then moved to PGIMER in Chandigarh on

An ultra-distance runner has covered four miles every hour for 81 hours straight, completing more than 337 miles. John Stocker beat Matt Blackburn in the Suffolk Backyard Ultra event that started on Saturday. Participants have to run 4.167 miles (7km) at Knettishall Heath every hour until they can no longer carry on. Organisers said Mr Blackburn, 35, and Mr Stocker, 41, both beat the previous world record for the global phenomenon. They said the previous record of 312.5 miles (502km) in 75 hours was

Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey broke the women's 10,000m world record by more than five seconds - just two days after it had previously been smashed. Gidey ran 29 minutes 1.03 seconds at the Ethiopian trials in Hengelo, the Netherlands. On Sunday, Dutch runner Sifan Hassan had broken the previous record, set by Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana at the 2016 Olympics, by more than 10 seconds. "I expected to run a world record," said 23-year-old Gidey. "I'd like to try to break the world record again and

Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah's hopes of ending his track career at the Tokyo Games suffered a huge blow as he fell short of the qualifying mark for the 10,000 metres in Birmingham on Saturday. The 38-year-old finished eighth, behind fellow Briton Marc Scott, in the European Cup, which doubled as British Olympic trial. Farah's time in his first race at this distance for four years was 22 seconds short of the required standard of 27 mins 28 secs to qualify for the Games which are

Lawrence Okoye speaks gently, but with certainty. Seventy metres is discus' gold standard. Only three active have ever thrown that far and major titles are usually won with much less. Could Okoye, after seven years out of the circle, really reach that mark? "Absolutely," he says. "Absolutely." His belief is total. But it has basis. Given another life, and other choices, he probably would already have done so. In July 2011, at the age of 19, he threw 67.63m, further than any teenager

Great Britain's Jemma Reekie ran an outdoor personal best as she won the 800m at the Golden Games in California in the United States. Reekie passed Canada's Melissa Bishop with 120 metres to go and claimed victory in one minute 58.27 seconds. Fellow Scot Laura Muir (1:58.46) was second and compatriot Adelle Tracey (1:59.50) finished fourth as they all met the Olympic qualifying standard. The event took place in the build-up to next month's US Olympic trials. There were also other impressive performances from the British contingent,

Joanna Coates, UK Athletics chief, said the organisation will have "zero tolerance" approach to sexism after a report revealed degrading treatment meted out to female coaches. UK Athletics chief executive Joanna Coates insisted her organisation would take a "zero tolerance" approach to sexism after a report revealed the degrading treatment faced by many female coaches. Although the likes of sprinter Dina Asher-Smith and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson are among Britain's best hopes of a gold medal at the delayed Tokyo Games, a Leeds Beckett University report revealed no female