Still running against the odds: revisiting the London Marathon ballot

Written by Anthony Hatswell on 29 October 2018.

Monday 15 October had a lot of people eagerly awaiting the postman to deliver the result of the London Marathon ballot – the lottery by which approximately half of race places are made available to the public. Unfortunately, the majority of applicants will have been left disappointed by the outcome: a record number of people applied for the limited number of places available. I wrote about the ballot process three years ago, and since then the London Marathon has only increased in popularity.

Anti-doping efforts, Russia's medals and Olympic athletics winners post-1988

Written by Ray Stefani on 09 February 2018.

Four years ago, Russia hosted the Sochi Winter Olympics. Today, as the 2018 Games get underway in PyeongChang, South Korea, Russia will be absent. The country’s Olympic Committee was suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December, following accusations of the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) among Russian athletes and further claims that Russia has engaged in the state-sponsored cover-up of doping offences.

E-sports, mind sports and the Olympics: What is a sport, anyway?

Written by Ray Stefani on 28 March 2017.

Most of us could describe a sport if asked. It might involve physical exertion of some kind – running, jumping, swimming – an element of competition, and a certain amount of blood, sweat and tears. But is the game of bridge a sport? Or chess? Both of these "mind sports" were included in the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) list of recognized sports – a list of sports that could (but not necessary would) be featured in future Olympic Games. But what about video games?

6 Nations Rugby – who’s the biggest overachiever?

Written by Ray Stefani on 12 January 2017.

The 6 Nations Rugby championship kicks off in a little over three weeks. England is favourite to be crowned champion, according to predictions made by Rugby Vision. But in this article, we look backwards rather than forwards, reviewing six years of 6 Nations tournaments to discover which team – England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland or Wales – can be named the biggest overachiever.

The Wenger hypothesis: How many points to win the English Premier League?

Written by Peter Martin on 01 December 2016.

Arsène Wenger (pictured) has been manager of Arsenal Football Club since 1996, making him the longest-standing manager of a current English Premier League (EPL) team. There is no doubt that he knows a thing or two about football that most people don't. Thus, when he made a prediction about the number of points needed to win the EPL this year, the football media listened up.