Returning London 2012 champions Andy Triggs Hodge and Anna Watkins had a serious reality check today as GB Rowing got its Rio 2016 programme underway with 5 kilometre trials in Boston, Lincolnshire. 

The Rio 2016 ambitions of returning London 2012 champions Andy Triggs Hodge and Anna Watkins will be rigorously tested this weekend as they make their competitive returns after one and three years respectively at the British Rowing trials in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Svein Arne Hansen has told a gathering of international broadcasters in Amsterdam that the European Championships hosted by the Dutch capital next year will attract “big interest” as a “key milestone” to Rio 2016.

Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar have ramped up the pressure on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to allow the Twenty20 game to bid to become an Olympic sport.

The number of positive results returned by worldwide anti-doping activity in 2014 was 10 per cent down on the previous year despite an increase in tests carried out, according to figures released by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

This year’s World Athlete of the Year award will not be open to athletes who have had serious doping suspensions, such as Justin Gatlin, the twice-sanctioned US sprinter whose shortlisting last year caused a huge outcry and prompted a boycott from another nominated athlete, Germany’s Olympic discus champion Robert Harting.

Sebastian Coe, in India as part of his first official visit to a member country since assuming the Presidency of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) last month, has backed the idea of an athletics league in the style of cricket's Indian Premier League (IPL) where athletes such as Usain Bolt and David Rudisha could represent some of the world's major cities.

The World Squash Federation (WSF), still coming to terms with its latest failure to earn the chance of Olympic inclusion, has requested an explanation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

President Svein Arne Hansen’s new vision for European Athletics (EA) has been sharpened by the creation of the EA Strategic Communications Commission, which has had its first meeting in Velenje, Slovenia.

A total of 656 doping controls were carried out during this year’s Tour de France, of which 482 were blood tests and 174 urine tests, cycling’s world governing body the Union Cycliste International (UCI) has announced.

The decision taken by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) not to add thyroid hormone to its list of banned substances for 2016 has angered doping authorities in Britain and United States.

The future shape of one-day meetings on the international athletics calendar will be analysed by a new working group of key directors, administrators and athletes’ agents, the newly-elected President of the International Association of Athletics Associations (IAAF) Sebastian Coe has announced.

European Athletics (EA) has taken an important step to creating a rewarding synergy with the Euorpean Commission to promote and enhance grassroots running.