Transport company Yamato Holdings have been appointed as the latest Official Partner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Last March I came to Rio de Janeiro in what marked one of my first trips outside Europe with insidethegames. Never having been to Brazil before I was rather wowed by everything I saw, and particularly by the city’s glamour, colour and vibrancy. I was consequently rather less sceptical than perhaps I should have been about everything I was told, especially in relation to insistences they would still meet a bid-time legacy commitment to reducing water pollution levels across the city by 80 per cent.

A senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) official has indicated that The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme could conceivably generate $2 billion (£1.3 billion/€1.8 million) in the next Olympic cycle - a near doubling in value from the present quadrennium culminating after Rio 2016.

The participation of Major League Baseball (MLB) players formed part of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) bid for inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the sport’s President Riccardo Fraccari revealed today.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has challenged what it describes as “a number of seriously incorrect assertions” by the two scientists who worked on the recent ARD television documentary alleging widespread doping malpractice in the sport between 2001 and 2012, and has condemned them for placing athletes under media pressure through their “analysis of incomplete data". 

Sergey Bubka has picked up his first public nomination in his campaign to become the new President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) after Kazakhstan promised to vote for him at the election later this month.

Skateboarding and inline speed skating were the two disciplines put forward for inclusion at Tokyo 2020 today by the International Federation of Roller Sports (FIRS) during a crucial presentation, insidethegames can reveal. 

Russia and the United States have signaled they are backing Sebastian Coe in his campaign to become the new President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) by being among a group of countries prepared to waive or reinvest their entitlement of the Olympic Athletics Dividend he proposes to introduce if elected.

Nearly half of respondents to a survey conducted by a Hungarian pollster are in support of Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it has been announced, with 42 per cent in opposition.

Sergey Bubka today joined his rival to become the new President of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Sebastian Coe, in defending the sport's record on doping. 

A final word, if I may, on the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Vote-gate.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has insisted Rio 2016 will achieve a "great legacy" when asked about pollution concerns on Guanabara Bay here on the eve of celebrations marking exactly one-year until the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.

When Tony Blair became leader of the British Labour Party in 1994 he realised that, while his two predecessors had gone some way towards modernising the party from its socialist roots, too few people believed there had been genuine change.

His remodelled “New” Labour Party thus introduced some substantial measures, but was more than anything else a rhetorical device to hammer home this symbolic break from the past.

South Sudan has been rubber-stamped as the 206th member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) here today, with plans already in place to send a four-strong team to Rio 2016.