Issue 482

Issue 482 | January 20 2017

“I’ll never give up” Tom Daley on his Olympic dream

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“ i ’ m a b u sy p e r s o n . i ’ m t e r r i b l e at s i t t i n g i n f r o n t o f t h e t v d o i n g n ot h i n g”

Cover image and this page: Sebastian Nevols

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love and hate Gary Lineker on hating homework and how to get stuffed before death

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tom daley Olympic diving star on mindfulness, YouTube, plus Rio highs and lows

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Sport uncovered Gymnast Louis Smith explains why his body is like a rubber band

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gadgets Hub robots and a Monster Battleship: your path to world domination begins

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diary Fran Halsall calls time, while Floyd Mayweather has no time for the UFC

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sky fall?

Going inside Team Sky in the midst of their UK Anti-Doping investigation

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ellyse perry All-round cricket star and international footballer

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grooming Slather your cold-stung face with moisturiser

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flats on friday Loyalty is a nice idea, but it doesn’t rotate the globe

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fantasy premier league Wildcard advice from the Fantasy Prem’s stats guru

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nfl preview Lowdown on the crunch games to see who will face off at Super Bowl 51

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fitness The most effective fat-loss methods, with our expert training guide

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Gary Lineker FOOTbALL prEsENTEr, THEATrEgOEr, FOODiE “homework should be banned. All it does is drive a massive wedge between parents and children, because you end up having to do it for them, and it’s stressful. They get stressed and they don’t want to do it. They’re at school long enough as it is. Why do you have to come home and do two hours of homework? I don’t think many people probably agree with me. But a lot of parents would, especially if you’ve had four boys.”

“as long as I can remember, I’ve been scared of heIghts. It’s embarrassing. I’m alright in a plane, or if it’s all

windows. But if there’s a balcony or anything where there’s a big drop like that, it freaks me out. I turn into a gibbering wreck.”

“ the theatre Is a recently dIscovered passIon.

With [ex-wife] Danielle it was already her passion, and at the start I didn’t think I’d enjoy it that much. But I actually really do. I go a lot. I’ve never done any acting. Except 148 Walkers crisps commercials, if you count that as acting. Basically playing myself being an idiot.”

“IndIa Is the place I defInItely want to go that I haven’ t been ye t. I’ve travelled expansively, from South Africa to

Europe to Asia and all over the world. To pick favourites is difficult. I love Italy, Spain and Barcelona for obvious reasons, from living there.”

“ the last thIng I saw In the theatre was PeoPles, Places and Things, which was absolutely superb. I’d thoroughly

“ the worst job I’ve had was just workIng wIth my dad on the marke t stall. Getting up at four in the morning

recommend it, although I don’t know if it’s still on. It’s probably going somewhere because it was so sensational: one female drug addict who was going through rehab and stuff. Brilliantly performed.”

“I cook a bIt. But I mainly like going out, enjoying fine cuisine.

We’re so spoilt in London with the diversification of food, which is one of the great glories about having so many ethnicities in this city.

You get the best of anything from anywhere in the world.”

and getting home at six, which I admittedly didn’t do that often. But it was enough to make me try extra hard at football, which is not a real job, and subsequently also television, which is also not a real job. I don’t think I did anything else!”

Ryan McAmis

“ top footballers are IntellIgent. You cannot be a really

top footballer by being a dope. It’s not necessarily an academic kind of intelligence – they’re perhaps not massively educated, because most footballers have to concentrate on their football from quite an early age.

But you have to have a real spatial awareness and understanding of everything around you, which is an intelligence in itself.”

“for my last meal, I’d probably go very spanIsh. I’d go with a nice pata negra or jamon jabugo, then probably a really great paella. Obviously with Rioja. And maybe a treacle sponge for pudding, with custard. I’d be stuffed; it’ll keep me going for a few years of death.”

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Quote of the week

B o w- o u t of the week After a glittering career laden with medals and national records, Fran Halsall’s social media retirement statement centred on how much she will not miss peeing in a pot for swimming’s drug testers to monitor. She’s certainly earned some privacy.

“He’s a f**king comedian. Look at this watch I bought. Do you know how much it costs? Look it up.”

With characteristic class, Floyd Mayweather gives short shrift to UFC president Dana White’s offer of $25m to fight Conor McGregor, his sport’s poster boy. Do not hold your breath for this match to be made.

numBer of the week Uber driver “hey, you look like @andy_murray.”

Me - “yeh I get that a lot” Uber Driver - “you’re much better looking mind you.” Cheers Mate!

tweet of the week Jamie Murray is a regular visitor to this nook of our diary. He nails another passive big brother burn here.

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Next time Justin Rose cards 20 under par through four rounds, you’d expect him to win. At last weekend‘s Sony Open in Hawaii, that score was seven shots adrift of the top spot as American world number eight Justin Thomas set a 72-hole record for the PGA Tour.

finisher of the week

Photo of the week

dive ’em, cowboy Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers served up a 65-point classic in the NFL playoffs. Zen-thrower Aaron Rodgers starred again for the Packers, but it was Mason Crosby’s field goal – narrowly avoiding Anthony Brown’s acrobatic block attempt – that sealed a 34-31 win.

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All pictures Getty Images

Virat Kohli’s breathtaking 122 drove a successful pursuit of 350 against England in Pune on Sunday. After that knock, India’s new 50-over captain boasted 27 one-day international centuries – 15 of which have arrived in successful run-chases.

It’s a ridiculous record.

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Loyalty an irrelevance when the cash carrot dangles

Main illustration: David Lyttleton. Pen pic: Peter Strain

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hould you have the internet – and you obviously do – then please use 20 per cent of today’s lunch break to watch a video. It is a video from last weekend, and features Paul Scholes, Robbie Savage and Owen Hargreaves discussing the subject of loyalty in football on BT Sport.

Truly, it was fascinating. I won’t describe the whole chat, because you’re going to watch it anyway, but it got me thinking about that very trait in rugby.

Away from microphones and cameras, most professional players would, I believe, claim that loyalty has been lost to rugby union. I’m not sure it’s all gone, but I would suggest that, in a relatively short period, money has diluted hugely what was once the very cornerstone of rugby behaviour. The sport needed money, and professionalism has made the game more wonderful in many ways, but there are inevitable side-effects.

There are still one-club men running around, but they are becoming an endangered species. International selection rulings serve to stop some top players leaving the country, but many will consider fleeing

for warmer, richer climes the minute those caps dry up. Who can blame them?

Hargreaves, in a moment of seemingly unplanned openness, asserts that loyalty is something possessed by fans and fans alone.

In football, this may be true. After all, even Steven Gerrard took a payday elsewhere once his beloved Liverpool ran out of use for him.

Were he as fiercely loyal to the club as the fans are, then he would not have been able to even consider playing in another jersey.

Rugby is getting there. The mid-season sacking of managers has now begun in earnest, and plenty of players are taking the chance to get paid more for the same job in France or Japan. My guess is that America won’t be far behind as a rugby destination.

“I loved Bath, but had a French club offered to triple my salary I’d have struggled to say no” 08

As a fan, you hope the players you support invest as much emotion in your club as you do. And some do – just not as many as you’d like. I played for Bath and loved my club totally, but had a French club offered to double or triple my salary, I’d have struggled to look my wife in the eye and say no to all that money – particularly bearing in mind how uncertain our future was.

The players who claim loyalty is dead are invariably referring to the clubs’ willingness to discard them once a new piece of meat comes along, but they often fail to recognise that it is, equally often, a two-way street. You might love the company for which you work, but what would you do if someone down the road doubled your money? You’d probably go.

I love the modern sport and I’m glad its players are being well paid, but I feel comfortable predicting that, one sporting generation from now, loyalty will be as apparent in professional rugby as it is in football – namely, not very. After all, it’s not what makes the world go round. @davidflatman

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Comments of the week Issue 481 | January 13 2017

Life b eg in s Why there’s plenty more to come from Dina Asher-Smith, Britain’s fastest female

So pleased to see such great coverage of women, especially @dinaashersmith in this week’s @SportMagUK #womeninsport @rebeccacmyers

The sooner Payet goes, the better for everyone

Pen pic: Peter Strain. Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

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ormer Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan didn’t mince his words over the Dimitri Payet saga currently engulfing West Ham in an interview with talkSPORT this week.

“My reaction would have been: ‘You’re going to the reserves or with the academy kids, you’re going to sit there for the next three years and I’ll take your career and flush it,” he said.

This is the kind of extreme sentiment that makes for the clickbait headlines our 21st-century world seems to demand – and fair play to Jordan, and his hair, for giving the people what they want to hear.

But it’s total nonsense, isn’t it? Whatever the rights and wrongs of the wantaway Payet’s attitude – plenty of the latter, very little of the former – this idea of letting a prize asset rot just to make a statement isn’t at all based in the reality of modern football.

This is, of course, why clubs are so happy to tie their star players into such long-term contracts – not because they want them to stay for that long, but so they can keep their value artificially high if bigger, richer clubs come knocking. Love it or loathe it, it’s simply part of the game.

Bearing in mind the season Payet had last season – at one stage he seemed to score from every free-kick he took, from anywhere on the pitch – West Ham were quite right to offer him improved terms. And he was quite right to demand and then accept them. We all would, in the same situation.

The important thing for West Ham now – and potentially for Chelsea, if Diego Costa continues to give China his 45-year-old glad eye – is that they make as

much as they can from the sale of an unhappy player.

The board and manager’s joint insistence that Payet is not for sale is presumably just posturing in a bid to provoke an increased offer from Marseille or anyone else, and I hope it works. The sooner they can get rid of their biggest earner (surely?) for the largest price possible, the sooner the club can move forward with

“The important thing for West Ham is to make as much as they can from the sale of an unhappy player” the enduringly tricky task of bedding into their new home. Crystal Palace may be a mess, but West Ham’s display last week – Andy Carroll’s strike is my goal of the season so far, while I’m on it – suggested life in the post-Payet era might not be that terrible after all.

In the meantime, certain fans and media can press on in exaggerated fury at the mercenary ways of today’s footballers, yearning for the good old days when players were real men and would play for free, such was their passion for the cause.

Like Bobby Moore, for example, who once asked to leave West Ham because Tottenham were offering him more money. Ah. Right. @tonyhodson1

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Fair point that the quality [in a 48-team World Cup] will be diluted, but do you agree the number of teams Europe receives has historically been unfairly weighted? @EQBooty 06

diary Colin Wanker struggles out of bed; Laura Muir’s long-distance domination

@SportMagUK Funny this, when I turned to page 6 the story actually seemed to be about Neil Warnock @Joe_emery1990 Ed: For once Joe, this was done on purpose – we were genuinely surprised how many people were unaware of sport’s greatest anagram @davidflatman great article in @SportMagUK today. Astonishes me how people go ‘off’ on sport related things compared to real life issues. @elinhafdavies

Keep in touch with @sportmaguk sportmagazine sportmaguk info@sport-magazine.co.uk

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Breaking America New TV show sees Ronnie O’Sullivan take on USA’s best

Take snooker’s most acclaimed, maverick genius and send him to America with one pal and one goal: to hustle enough money in pool halls to pay for their flights back to Britain. It’s a superb set-up, as Ronnie O’Sullivan’s American Hustle sees the Rocket travel to four US cities (New York, Chicago, Memphis and San Francisco) to go head to head with notorious pool sharks. That includes the world’s best female pool player, ‘Black Widow’ Jeanette Lee and the legendary Earl ‘The Pearl’ Strickland, who once had a fiery match against a certain Steve Davis.

Away from the tables, O’Sullivan and broadcaster Matt Smith get immersed in Americana, visiting Elvis Presley’s Graceland and Alcatraz, and sitting in the cocktail bar booth that Al Capone regularly used (the one where he could see both exits, naturally). O’Sullivan also tries his hand at basketball, baseball, American football and falls over playing virtual pool. But how will our cue-wielding maestro handle a version of billiards where the table has no pockets whatsoever? At least you can’t go in-off, Ron. Ronnie O’Sullivan’s American Hustle starts on January 26 at 10pm on HISTORY

T h r e e l e g e n d s o f

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Bobby Riggs

Jimmy Wilde

Jeanne Carmen

Wimbledon champ in 1939, the American beat club tennis players for cash, often in bizarre handicap matches (e.g. with him using a frying pan as a tennis racquet). At age 55, lost the $100,000prize ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match to Billie Jean King.

The 5ft 2ins Welsh flyweight took on allcomers in fairground boxing booths (common in the early 1900s), knocking out far larger men.

After turning pro, he became a world champion and is now regarded as one of boxing’s all-time greatest punchers.

US model, expert trick-shot golfer and B-movie star (sample title: Guns Don’t Argue), Carmen would hustle cocky chaps on the course who doubted a female golfer could beat them. “There wasn’t anything I couldn’t do with a ball,” she later said.

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Alexandre Dimou/Icon Sport via Getty Images

See a Toulon home match Felix Mayol was a toulonnais singer who found success in Paris before, 97 years ago, he returned home to found a stadium. As a stage performer, he would have been proud of the venue that now bears his name. Every rugby match there exudes a heady sense of theatre.

Fans who fill the black and red stands are as much a part of the performance as those on the pitch. They berate, bay, bark and – only when the time is right – hurl newspapers into the sky to signal victory. Though capacity is a middling 15,820, volume rarely dips below deafening regardless of Toulon’s fortunes. If standards slip, supporters do not hesitate in spraying vitriol at their own side.

Perhaps impatience was bred by a recent golden period. After surging through the domestic divisions, Toulon captured three straight European crowns between 2013 and 2015. Jonny Wilkinson inspired a Top 14 triumph in 2014, but silverware has waned since.

The French tradition of stubborn home resistance lives on, however, and a revolving door of exotic recruits keeps spinning. Another rosbif, prolific winger Chris Ashton, joins in the summer and will surely rack up a heap of tries.

The easiest means of reaching Toulon from England is a flight to Marseille, which costs as little as £26 on Ryanair. From there, allow 50 minutes and €38 per person for a taxi transfer.

Ticket prices vary (from €20 to €80). Stay in the town centre for a special post-match atmosphere.

Often Toulon’s megastars pile into restaurants around the harbour. Le Navigateur overlooks the marina, about 200 metres from the Mayol.

The stadium’s basic amenities add to the charm and ensure there is no excuse for you not to be seated before tattooed talisman Cedric Abellon leads the Pilou Pilou – a guttural, tonesetting chant designed to galvanise locals. This ditty vindicates the Toulon proverb that “when the scrum goes backwards, the town does too”.

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Need to kNow Where Toulon, on the Côte d’Azur, around 65km east of Marseille When The Stade Mayol hosts matches in the French league, the Top 14, on alternate weekends between late August and May. European ties are less frequent, across the same timeframe Key tips Make sure to get a view of Toulon’s arrival. Flagwaving locals line the players’ path from coach to stadium, giving you a flavour of crowd favourites and cult heroes very quickly

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Brian Bielmann/AFP/Getty Images

Balaram Stack’s bogus journey Heinous scenes at the 2017 Backdoor Shootout surfing contest in Hawaii, as one surfer was suddenly beamed back to his home planet midcompetition. Balaram Stack (who clearly hadn’t even bothered to hide his alien identity by taking an earthling name) is shown here being yanked off his board by an invisible force. Well, that or he’s just wiping out in spectacular fashion. Either way, it was a totally non-gnarly day for the Stack-man.

Rio rebound Diver Tom Daley on coming back from Olympic heartbreak Words Sarah Shephard Photography Sebastian Nevols

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om Daley was in the shape of his life when he competed at last summer’s Olympics.

Physically and mentally at his peak, the 22-year-old entered his third Games believing he was ready to realise his dream of becoming an Olympic champion.

Instead, that dream was shattered.

Daley came home with bronze, not gold.

And while he took great pride at standing on the podium alongside synchro partner Dan Goodfellow, he was devastated to leave the sport’s showpiece event – the individual 10m platform – empty-handed.

“Even now, me and my coach look back and there’s nothing we can think of that went wrong,” says Daley, reflecting on the performance that put him last out of 18 divers in the 10m platform semi final.

In Rio, Daley was distraught. Just 24 hours after setting a record score in the preliminary round – one that would have won gold at London 2012 – he struggled to hold back the tears as he tried to explain what had gone wrong to the British media.

Four months on, Daley reflects on it with the perspective of a man who has spent most of his 22 years learning how to rationalise the extreme highs and lows of

elite sport. A European champion at 13, an Olympian at 14 and Britain’s first individual diving world champion at 15, Daley has been in the spotlight for as long as he can recall.

He remains largely unaffected by this long-term celebrity, though. Arriving at Sport’s offices dressed in a plain white T-shirt and black jeans, Daley’s unshaven face tries (and fails) to detract from his boyish looks. He’s here on a publicity mission for Tom’s Daily Plan, his healthy eating and fitness guide, but seems genuine in his passion for cooking and eating well.

It wasn’t always so. Daley remembers an addiction to Diet Coke so bad he would order it with breakfast. Now, knowing the downsides of such a habit, he sips on green tea, water and an occasional coffee instead.

Mind over matter

Daley enthuses about the impact that mindfulness has had on him recently, and not only with regards to eating.

“Often people just shovel everything in and end up just as hungry,” he explains.

“You feel more full if you think about the flavours and textures inside your mouth.”

Daley employs that same mode of thought in relation to his diving career:

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“I practise mindfulness every morning.

It’s about giving yourself a bit of time to come back to the basics and focus on your breathing. Counting breaths is something I started doing heavily leading into the Olympics; it really relaxes you and gets rid of any anxiety about what’s ahead.”

Did the 14-year-old who competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics have any such mental tactics in his armoury?

“Tom in Beijing had no idea,” he laughs.

“I didn’t think about the scale of it then – it was just diving. London 2012 was different, because I had the new pressure of a home Olympics. After 2012, there were other pressures you put on yourself to maintain those levels and win another Olympic medal.

“That’s when I realised the importance of getting a bit of headspace – getting your mind and body to work together to get the best out of your performance.”

When we speak, Daley has been back in training for a few weeks after his postOlympics break.

“It was nice to have time off and be a bit more normal,” he says. “But I got to the point where I was like: ‘Okay, I want to get back now.’ I started with one session a day, then two a day, three times a week – slowly building it back up so that, when I get k

with the bronze medal he and Goodfellow won and being on a “massive high” after setting a new Olympic record (later bettered by China’s Chen Aisen) in the preliminary round of the individual event.

“That was a big deal,” he says. “I was very excited. Then, the next day, to be in the situation where I didn’t make the finals, it was heartbreaking.

“At the same time, I had to understand that I put everything into it. I couldn’t have done anything different in training to put myself in a better position. I guess everyone has an off day sometimes. Of course, we only get one shot every four years – and it just so happened that was my bad day.

“It was one of the toughest experiences of my career. I went in thinking I was going to come out an Olympic champion. I felt in the best shape, physically and mentally, I’d ever been in. So it was hard to accept, but it’s about what you learn from it.”

Daley will be 26 at Tokyo 2020, a Games that surely will mark his Olympic farewell?

“It really does depend on how my body holds up,” he argues. “If my body would let me, I’d dive until I’m 40. That probably won’t be the case, but who knows?

“I consider myself very lucky to be in the position I am. Lance [Black, Daley’s Oscarwinning, film producer fiancé], always says he really loves his job, but he will refer to it like: ‘I’m going to do some work now.’

Whereas I never say: ‘Oh, I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.’ Training is something I enjoy. It’s never been a job for me.”

Carting publicity

“On a normal day, I’ll do between 70 and 110 dives from varying heights – but only 30 from the 10m board” back into full training, I’m not sore all the time.”

By now, Daley will be completing 10 or 11 training sessions a week, each lasting two to three hours.

“On a normal day, I’ll do between 70 and 110 dives from varying heights,” he tells us.

“Only around 30 of those will be from the 10m board though, because of the impact on your body when you hit the water at 35 miles per hour.”

Highs and lows

The self-imposed break Daley took after Rio was partly a result of lessons learned from his rapid returns after both the Beijing and London Games. In 2008, he had only four days out of the pool and was back at school the day after getting home from the Chinese capital. “I just carried straight on,”

he says. “I was loving it. I was only 14, so to me it felt normal.”

It was four years later, after winning his first Olympic medal in London, that Daley realised he needed more time: “I had 10 days off before competing at the world juniors, and another couple of weeks after that, but it didn’t give me enough time to switch off. By then I was 18, I wanted to go out with my friends. I had injuries coming back, too… it was a really weird, rough time.

“It’s something I definitely learned from.

This time I gave myself a period when I didn’t think about diving or go in the pool.

And it worked, because I got to the point where I actually wanted to come back. It wasn’t like previous years, when I was told: ‘You have to come back now.’”

Asked to reflect on his experiences in Rio, Daley sums it up simply as “highs and lows”. He talks of being “over the moon”

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Even so, Daley has been known to seek out extracurricular activities. Whether that’s formulating content for his YouTube channel (where four years ago he announced his relationship with Black in a video viewed more than 12 million times) or fronting diving-themed TV show Splash!

In 2013, the latter earned him criticism from British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes, who expressed concerns the teenager was “putting the cart before the horse”, given he was “yet to achieve his full potential”.

For Daley, these extras are key to him performing at his best: “Anyone who knows me knows I’m a busy person. I’m terrible at sitting in front of the TV doing nothing, because then I think about things. One of my ways to be so concentrated on diving is to have a distraction outside it.

“Leading into 2012, I was at school full-time. After that, I had so many hours in a day to fill. I did Spanish lessons once a week leading into the Games, just to have something to take my brain off it.

Otherwise all you think about is diving. It can become your whole life.”

Daley has also completed courses in camera operations and editing, with a view to sharpening his YouTube offerings.

His long-term ambitions, however, lie in front of the camera. “I’d love to be a TV presenter when I’ve finished diving,” k

DAley’s MilestOnes January 2008: Youngest male to win British senior 10m title, aged 13 March 2008: Wins individual 10m gold at European Championships – youngest male ever to do so (still 13) August 2008: Becomes Britain’s second-youngest Olympian, competing in Beijing aged 14.

Finishes eighth in synchro and seventh in the individual event July 2009: Is Britain’s first individual diving world champion, aged 15 October 2010: Double gold at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi April 2012: Wins overall FINA World Series title August 2012: 10m platform bronze at London 2012 Olympics October 2012: Double gold at the Junior World Championships

Hair & makeup: Kate Kent, Clive Rose/Getty Images

January 2013: TV show Splash! gets highest Saturday night ratings in each of the five weeks it airs August 2014: Silver in synchro and gold in individual 10m events at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games August 2015: World Championships gold in the inaugural team event, plus individual bronze May 2016: Three medals at the Euros, including gold in the individual 10m and mixed 3m synchro August 2016: Bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

he explains. “Obviously number one, I’m a diver. But I do have to think about what I want to do once I’ve finished.

“It’s not like I can retire at the age of 26 or 30 and say: ‘Okay, that’s it. I’m just going to live my life now and not work.’ I’m being proactive. There are lots of divers on the team who haven’t thought about it – if they were to finish diving tomorrow, they’d have nothing. For me, it’s about being mindful and planning for ‘what if?’”

Seeing is believing

It helps that his fiancé is an expert in the small and big screen. “He does give me a bit of advice,” says Daley, with a smile.

The couple live together near Daley’s training base at the Olympic Park in Stratford, and are planning to tie the knot later this year. The combination of elite sportsperson and Hollywood creative works, then, despite the apparent clash of cultures. “I’m very structured,” says Daley.

“I like routine, and I’m a planner. I have to be with training, and stuff like knowing when I’m next going to eat.

“Whereas Lance is obviously a creative type. He doesn’t necessarily think about the next meal; he’s just inside his head thinking about what stories he’s working on.”

Have his healthy habits rubbed off on Lance? “He’d probably tell you the opposite,” laughs Daley. “I have a sweet tooth – that’s my guilty thing. Lance says before he met me he’d always go for savoury things, such as cheese for dessert.

He’s definitely overtaken me on the sweet tooth scale – he’ll blame me for that.”

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Black’s support has helped Daley move on from his Rio disappointment. He talks to a sport psychologist, too – something he considers important in a sport as “mentally challenging as diving, where you’re standing on the end of that board all alone”.

“People shy away from talking about it,” says Daley. “They think: ‘Nah, I’m alright. I don’t need that.’ But it’s about understanding why you feel certain ways and how you can bring yourself back to feeling calm and focused.

“One tip I give other people for when something really bad happens is to imagine walking down a really long corridor. On the walls are paintings of all the milestones in your life – even the bad ones, put them all up. As you walk past you think: ‘Yeah, that was terrible.’ But then you move on because the next painting is a better one.

It’s a bit of visualisation I like to use.”

There’s a steeliness to Daley. Growing up in the spotlight, losing a parent before the age of 18 – his father Robert passed away in 2011 after a battle with brain cancer – and coming out to millions will do that.

“I will never be defeated,” Daley says, puffing his chest out in a self-mocking manner. “Some people might describe me as stubborn, because I’m not someone to just give up. If I have a dream of doing something, I’ll make it happen one way or another. So I’ll be going to Tokyo believing I can fulfil my dream of becoming Olympic champion. That’s the only option.” @sarahsportmag Tom’s Daily Plan is out now, published by HarperCollins

Russ Ellis Photography Limited via Team Sky

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ransparency is a dangerous word, explains Fran Millar. Sport

has asked Team Sky’s director of business operations if, given that they are the subject of a UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) investigation into “allegations of wrongdoing in cycling”, the British WorldTour team need to be seen to be more transparent than ever.

“Personally, I’ve never said ‘transparent’,” says Millar. “And I would never want it in any of our briefings or anything, because it means something different to everyone. And this is a highperformance sports team. We can’t be completely transparent, because we want to win. We can’t share all our training techniques, we can’t share how we do everything. This whole idea that sports teams need to be completely transparent – it’s an absolute facade anyway, because you can’t do that.

“What you have to do is be honest. You have to build trust. People have to believe in you. And you have to demonstrate that you are doing it in the right way. And we potentially haven’t done a good enough job of that. And if people have lost trust in us because of this, then we have a job to do to win that back.”

The focus of the UKAD investigation is the contents of a Jiffy bag delivered by a British Cycling team member, Simon Cope, to the Team Sky bus in France on the final day of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine, just after Bradley Wiggins had won the race.

Suspicion also lingers over Wiggins’ use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for the corticosteroid triamcinolone – to treat pollen allergies – prior to three of the biggest races of his career, all while he was at Sky. That news – which made its way into the public domain courtesy of the Fancy Bears hacking group – and its accompanying inconsistencies, does not make for a smooth start to the new cycling season, which began earlier this week with the Tour Down Under.

But the big question without a definitive answer is still: what was in the Jiffy bag?

BACK IN A JIFFY

Team principal Sir Dave Brailsford said in front of Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee that he had been told by Team Sky’s then-doctor, Richard Freeman, that the bag contained Fluimucil, a (legal) decongestant. UKAD has, so far, been unable to verify that claim.

David Kenworthy, UKAD’s chairman, described the evidence provided

by Brailsford and British Cycling as “extraordinary” and “very disappointing”.

Kenworthy’s comments did, however, appear to breach UKAD’s policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations.

“His comment about this being ‘extraordinary’ was extraordinary in itself,” Brailsford told journalists, Sport among them, assembled at Sky’s training camp in Mallorca. “This is a statutory body, UKAD, and I think most fair-minded people will think there’s an investigation and a process: ‘Okay, let’s wait until they get to the end. They have the ability to ask all the questions that need to be asked, go places, wherever they need to go.’

“For him to comment halfway through, as chair of that organisation, when we are trying to respect that process; I’ve written to UKAD to express our concerns about that.”

There were a lot of questions asked of Brailsford, most of which came back to his reluctance to discuss the details of the investigation until it was concluded. As he himself pointed out: “It’s like roleplay, isn’t it? I know what you’re going to ask. You pretty much know what I’m going to say.

That’s the reality of the situation.” k

C l o u d y s k y An embattled team principal, an ongoing UK Anti-Doping investigation and a lack of answers about that Jiffy bag.

Can Team Sky regain cycling fans’ trust?

Words Graham Willgoss

24

Rocky road: a Team Sky rider trains in Mallorca ahead of what could be a difficult new season

To add to Brailsford’s discomfort, star rider Chris Froome declined to give a firm endorsement of his boss, despite being repeatedly invited to do so at a media day held in Monaco earlier this month. It was not, Brailsford (below) admitted, an easy environment to enter into.

“I don’t think Brailsford has ever loved talking to the press, and he’s got a tendency to be obfuscatory,” says Ed Pickering, editor of Procycling magazine. “He talks extremely well, but this sometimes obscures the fact that he’s actually neither addressing nor answering the question he’s been asked. I hope the fact this has now come to a Parliamentary enquiry and a UKAD investigation is enough to persuade him to accept that the questions need to be asked.

“Sky have historically been bad at PR. They have been happy to claim transparency, while offering little of the sort. I was very surprised when the Emma Pooley alibi turned out to be false [Brailsford originally claimed Cope had travelled out to La Toussuire to see the British rider in his capacity as women’s cycling coach; Pooley was in fact racing

“ i f T h e

y o u

s T e p

r u l e s ,

e v e r y T h i n g y o u

in Spain]. Either it was a fiction, or it suggested that the famed organisational prowess of the team might not be so impressive after all. I can’t talk for them, but I would have thought a convincing explanation would have been a priority.”

Brailsford has admitted he has handled the situation badly. But what about that famous organisational framework – is he concerned he might have been let down?

“I can’t be across everything in the team,” Brailsford says. “What I do know is these are our values, this is what we’re going to try and achieve, these are our processes. And you put things in place and you expect people then to take personal accountability to deliver that...

“But what you can do is make it very clear in your culture and understanding of what is right and wrong, and what behaviour is accepted and what’s not accepted. What’s the way to behave, and what’s not the way to behave.

“If someone decides to step outside of that, they’ve got to take accountability for that. If someone decides to say: ‘I understand what the rules are and how to

T h a T

o u T s i d e

y o u ’ v e

g o T

c o m i n g

y o u

a T

d e s e r v e ”

26

operate in this environment, but I’m going to step outside and do something different,’ you’ve got everything coming at you that you deserve. I’ve got no mercy for that.

No mercy whatsoever.”

Taking iT on The chin

Cycling history tells us the dominant teams in the peloton have often been those prepared to break the rules. That’s not to say Sky have done anything illegal. It’s just the context in which they find themselves operating. They have to work harder than any team in history to win fans’ trust.

“I actually think, way prior to the Fancy Bears stuff, we weren’t winning that war anyway,” says Millar. “People very quickly forget that the Lance Armstrong reasoned decision [by the United State AntiDoping Agency, who labelled him a serial cheat who led “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”] was in [late] 2012. That isn’t a lifetime ago.

“So in the space of four years, people aren’t suddenly going to be like: ‘This team’s dominant, they’ve won the Tour [de France] in four of the past five years, I believe them completely.’ Of course they’re not. And they shouldn’t. And we should be interrogated, and we should be questioned.

But we should also be robust enough, and prepared to demonstrate we are doing it in the right way, and to take that on the chin.”

To Sky’s credit, they have done that partly by holding their media day while beset by controversy. Though in a sense, they would be damned if they did (more questions to fuel the UKAD fire) and damned if they didn’t (what do they have to hide?).

“If we only do press days when things are easy, people are asking nice questions and we’ve won the Tour; and you shut down when things are difficult, or a bit rough, or people are asking difficult questions, I personally don’t think that’s the right way to approach it,” says Millar.

“So I think we have a responsibility to our fans, to journalists, to the media, to do them. It is business as usual, but we knew coming into it that it was going to be rough.

And we also knew the likelihood of getting a positive outcome was limited. But it’s our job to do it, and we’ll do it [because] it’s professional and it’s the right thing to do.”

Business as usual means Sky have a season to prepare for on the road. For a high proportion of their staff, that remains their focus. But can Millar see an end to the UKAD-related questions?

“Someone sent me a quote by some politician about how when a press story starts to build, it’s like a tornado,” she says.

“And if you try to stop the tornado, all you do is make it spin faster. So you just have to accept that you are in the eye of the storm.

“And I am in a completely unique position in this team, in that I have been in the middle of a genuine scandal where there had been wrongdoing. I know what that felt like, and this is very different.”

To clarify, Millar is referring to her brother David, who confessed to using illegal performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin prior to the 2004 Tour after being arrested by French police. He was banned from cycling for two years.

“That was a legit doping scandal, and the whole world was falling in,” Millar continues. “When you’ve been through that, and when you know what I know about this team, and when you have been involved with this team for as long as I have, it actually feels like we’ve done the right thing by going to UKAD. “It’s a really uncomfortable process. But it’s the right process. And you can either let what’s going on in the media worry you, and freak you out, and dominate. Or you can think: ‘We’re doing things right as a team. We have some incredible athletes.’

I know for a fact this is the cleanest team, I would say, in the sport. It’s something to be proud of. So yes, I can see an end to it.

Nothing bad lasts forever.”

The full package

For Pickering, there is only one satisfactory resolution to the most controversial saga in Team Sky’s short history.

“[That] would be an answer to the question ‘what was in the package?’ backed up with documentary evidence,” he says.

“There are three realistic outcomes to the UKAD investigation. If there’s evidence of wrongdoing, some individuals will be in trouble and there will be ramifications for the team. If they are entirely cleared, then they can get on with being a cycling team again. Or they’ll be cleared, but without satisfactory conclusions, which won’t be ideal for anybody. Sky need this story to die; if it shambles on, then we’ll be much where we were before.”

Pickering also believes Brailsford will remain in place as team principal: “He seems to be toughing it out, and I think he won’t go unless his position is absolutely untenable. That would take evidence of wrongdoing. What will be interesting is if he has lost the dressing room. If his key riders don’t support him through this, it might be difficult for him to justify staying.”

For his part, Brailsford says his working relationship with Froome remains strong and he ‘knows in his soul’ he is doing things the right way. Only, he says, if his continuing were to affect his team’s performance would he reassess his position. “I try and hold myself to the

27

highest standards,” he says. “I don’t run through this blindly and naively, thinking I can just keep on going.”

Some important questions still need to be answered for those high standards to be maintained. If they are, Sky have an exciting season to look forward to. Geraint Thomas will take co-leadership, with Mikel Landa, of their Giro d’Italia team. Froome will go for a fourth Tour de France title. A new generation of British riders – Owain Doull, Jon Dibben and Tao Geoghegan Hart – will, as Brailsford puts it, learn how win.

“It sounds evangelical, and I don’t really care,” says Millar. “I genuinely wanted to work for this team, so your Taos and your Jon Dibbens would have the opportunity to fulfil their potential without even having to consider the choices David [Millar] had to make [dope, keep up; don’t and you might not have a career left]...

“I believe in this team and in what we’re doing. I genuinely don’t believe there has been wrongdoing. And, as Dave [Brailsford] said: if there has been, f**king throw them to the wolves. I have no problem with that.

But I don’t believe there was. I don’t believe it has been handled very well, by anyone.

But I’ll defend it until I’m blue in the face.” @grahamwillgoss

Reuters/Enrique Calvo, Tim de Waele/Corbis via Getty Images

Delivered: Team Sky ride for Bradley Wiggins on Stage 5 of the 2011 Dauphine – the race at the end of which the team’s doctor received the infamous Jiffy bag

Peter Crouch SUN (A) Statistic Bonus Assists Minutes played Goals scored

2 1 90 1

alexis sanchez C ★

Tom heaton SOU (H) Pts 2 3 2 4

O n e

Statistic Bonus Clean sheets Saves Minutes played

3 1 5 90

SWA (A) Pts 3 4 1 2

w i l d

Sport enlists the help of a Fantasy Premier League expert and learns how to save your season by using your wildcard Words Charlie Morgan

M

y 2016/17 Fantasy Premier League campaign began badly.

The Leicester City spine malfunctioned. Jamie Vardy missed chances on the opening day. Ahmed Musa could not replicate a (probably) phenomenal pre-season.

The timely recruitment of Diego Costa – and his ability to dodge suspension until December, when Zlatan Ibrahimovic took up the slack – dragged me towards respectability. However, 72 points behind editor Tony Hodson in the Sport ladder, I needed emergency intervention.

Thursday, January 12

“You don’t need major surgery,” assures Mark Sutherns when I meet him at the Premier League offices. “But your team

value isn’t that high because you haven’t been reacting to bandwagons. So play the wildcard, make your transfers and then I’ll have a look.”

Devouring Rothmans Yearbooks as a child, Sutherns developed an appetite for football statistics. In the late 1980s, when newspapers started running fantasy games, he would collate scores, print pamphlets and organise a competition among mates.

Some 20 years later, a colleague introduced him to the Premier League’s online platform. Sutherns was hooked, establishing fantasyfootballscout.co.uk to detail his strategies.

“I remember being delighted when 200 people came to my website in a day,” he says. “Now we average 600,000 a month. The Fantasy Football Scout league has been the top league for the past five years, with three of the past four winners.

28

Statistic Bonus Clean sheets Minutes played Goals scored

3 1 78 1

Pts 3 1 2 5

w e e k My best season was two years ago, when I came 42nd overall.”

Those numbers require context. The FPL has grown from 75,000 players in 2002, boasting 4.3 million players this season. The Premier League identified the need for a guru, and Mark was brought in.

With all that in mind, I rearrange my team with trepidation, with Mark beside me. This feels half counselling session, half meeting a girlfriend’s father.

Mercifully, there are easy decisions.

Simon Francis is suspended and Lamine Kone’s Africa Cup of Nations trip means my defence needs a facelift. I point out a potential new recruit: Virgil van Dijk.

Sutherns nods. “He is Southampton’s back line.” Phew.

Wilfried Zaha goes next. Christian Eriksen comes in. Sutherns seems concerned about budget, so I axe Eden Hazard and introduce Matt Phillips. Tom Heaton for Fraser Forster is a crucial change at goalkeeper.

Emboldened by Sutherns’ approval, cockiness descends. I mumble a soundbite about the rigours of England and drop Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Juan Mata, dynamic of late, replaces his clubmate. That will do.

statistic Minutes played Goals scored

68 1

pts 2 5

sunday, january 15

e n d Sutherns takes over. He starts by boomeranging Mata back out, citing Jose Mourinho’s volatile selection policy.

Philippe Coutinho comes in. “If players are returning from injury, get them before their value increases,” he advises.

Into his stride, Sutherns turns to my poundshop bench. He trades Watford’s Etienne Capoue for Bournemouth’s Junior Stanislas and shows me a trick. Clicking on a player’s icon, users can view a tool that colour-codes each game, rating difficulty from one to five. Bournemouth have a trip to Hull before welcoming Watford and Crystal Palace at home.

Sign here, Junior.

“IF players are returnIng From Injury, get them beFore theIr value Increases”

It is hard to tell what floods in faster: points from my players or expletive-ridden messages from competitive friends. Eriksen starts the ball rolling with two assists on Saturday lunchtime. Phillips is quiet and my other West Brom bench man, Gareth McAuley, slumps to minus three.

Elsewhere, Stanislas scores from the spot – usual penalty-taker Callum Wilson was on Bournemouth’s bench, as Sutherns predicted. Heaton and Cesar Azpilicueta grab clean sheets. Sure enough, Crouch terrorises Sunderland, setting up Marko Arnautovic before nodding a goal himself.

Skipper Sanchez nets in Swansea, bagging three bonus points – which are decided on Opta figures such as pass completion – in the process. Although this does not stop a weekly torrent of disputing tweets, Mark believes the system is fair: “People used to sniff at stats and call them geeky. Now data is everywhere. You can’t move for a heat map on social media.”

At the end of Sunday evening’s draw between Manchester United and Liverpool, my total for the gameweek is 88 points – the highest of my season to date, even if 147,931 managers did better. I climb over a quarter of a million places. For sheer scale, Fantasy Premier League boggles the mind.

More importantly, Sutherns hauls me to within 55 of Tony in the Sport league. Not only that, he has rekindled a competitive instinct. I will not give up until May. Mata looked lively when Mourinho unleashed him, but I can forgive Sutherns for that.

Besides, Coutinho faces Swansea this Saturday – and I will be dining out on that Crouch performance for weeks. @charlieFelix

29

shot to pieces

Claudio Bravo’s save percentage: secondlowest of keepers who have played 10 or more Premier League games. Man City host Tottenham on Saturday

the weekend’s fixtures saturday

LiverpooL v SwanSea BT SporT 1, 12.30pm Bournemouth v watford, 3pm CryStaL paLaCe v everton, 3pm middLeSBrough v weSt ham, 3pm Stoke v man utd, 3pm weSt Brom v SunderLand, 3pm man City v tottenham BT SporT 1, 5.30pm

sunday

Southampton v LeiCeSter Sky SporTS 1, 12pm arSenaL v BurnLey Sky SporTS 1, 2.15pm CheLSea v huLL Sky SporTS 1, 4.30pm

All pictures Getty Images

junior stanislas HUL (A)

Marcin Wasilewski is swapped for Swansea’s Stephen Kingsley, leaving selfless grafter Shinji Okazaki as my last remaining Leicester link. Sutherns sweetens the bitter pill of his departure with insight.

“Stoke have started using Peter Crouch well,” he says. “At £4.7m, he’s a million cheaper than Okazaki, so you’ll be under budget by £0.1m. Sunderland [Stoke’s weekend opponents] have conceded 57 attempts on goal from headers, one of the most in the division.

“Then, is Matt Phillips going to do a lot against Spurs? Probably not. So, although a 3-5-2 formation has been popular this year, I’d go 3-4-3 this weekend.”

I reach out to shake Sutherns’ hand, which he only accepts after ensuring I have captained Alexis Sanchez and ordered my substitutes correctly.

Louis Smith Gymnast, 27

Photography: Jon Enoch. Hair and makeup: Sadaf Ahmad

“N

ow I’m getting older, I can’t do what I used to do. My body is

different. It’s in a lot more pain.

When I competed at my first Olympics in 2008, my body was like a rubber band. I’d wake up the day after competing and feel fine. I didn’t need to worry about diet either. I could eat McDonald’s and junk food in the Olympic village and be fine. Now, recovery is more of a craft – I have to get a sports massage and take my diet more seriously. These days, if I have a ‘cheat meal’ I really feel it the next day, so I eat as healthy as I can to help my recovery.

“I had about 18 months out of the sport after London 2012. But even when I stopped training, I still had a monstrous metabolism. I wasn’t training six hours a day, but I was still eating as I had been so gained a lot of weight. As soon as I got back into training, though, it fell off. I probably lost about a stone in two or three weeks from being back in the gym, doing some fitness work and eating smart.”

W o n D E r W o m a n Cricket star and international footballer: the multitalented Ellyse Perry talks to Sport about the growth of her games and this summer’s Cricket World Cup Words Alex Reid Photography Fred MacGregor

P

icture what you were doing at age 16. No matter what has

sprung to mind, it’s unlikely to be as remarkable as what Ellyse Perry was up to. In July 2007, the then 16-yearold all-rounder became the youngest player, male or female, to play for the Australian national cricket team. A matter of weeks later, she made another debut: as a defender for the Australian national football team, scoring in the second minute in an 8-1 win over Hong Kong.

“It was probably all a bit surreal,” understates Perry, now 26, on the year she became a teenage sensation in two different sports. “I missed a lot of school in that year – which is good and bad, I guess! But it was incredible to play two sports that I love at that level. I felt really lucky.”

The feeling was that luck would soon run out for one of those sports. Perry acknowledged early on that she’d likely have to choose between cricket and football at some stage, yet she has kept playing both at a high level for a remarkable stretch.

She’s better known as a cricketer now, but she still has 18 full caps for the Aussie football team and scored with a wonder strike in the quarter final of the 2011 World Cup, to boot. It’s only because of doubts over her ability to commit time to football that recent national team coaches have omitted her.

“I still play football back home,” she says. “I haven’t played much for the national team in the past couple of years – but I’ve had wonderful support, between cricket and football, since I started. Both have been great in letting me pursue my dreams and aspirations.

“It’s just that, as time has gone on, both sports have really developed to the point that they are more full-time commitments now. There are more competitions, more

training obligations. But if it does come to the point where it’s really not possible to play both, I kinda see that as a good thing, because it means both sports have really progressed.”

Da z z l i n g h i g h s

The progression of sport crops up several times with Perry. At one point, Sport asks her to pick one highlight from her cricket career. Contenders here include: three World Twenty20 wins with Australia, a superb performance in the 2013 World Cup final as an injured Perry limped in to take 3/19 in 10 overs, plus the 2015 Ashes in which Perry was top wicket-taker and top run-scorer in England. Ignoring all of these, she instead picks the wider growth of the sport as a whole.

“When I first came into the team, it was the first year players were on contracts,” she recalls. “They weren’t substantial contracts – just top-ups on what you were doing outside cricket to make a living. To see where it is now – where there are a lot of full-time cricketers and professional leagues such as the Women’s Big Bash League and the Kia Super League in England – is really wonderful. It’s great for young girls to see that – to know that sport is a career option for them, too, not just for boys. That’s really been the highlight.”

What’s stunning about Perry is that, unlike many teenage tyros who peak early, she’s actually improving with age. Her pace bowling was always the stronger of her two suits, but of late her batting has improved to the point that she has scored an incredible 16 half-centuries in her past 22 one-day internationals.

In December 2015, Perry married Australia and Leicester Tigers fly-half Matt Toomua – and in person she seems

32

“It ’s great for young girls to know that sport is a career option for them, too, not just for boys”

unaffectedly happy and down-to-earth.

Frankly, it is all too feel-good for Sport. We are determined to find some dirt. So, are you a bad loser Ellyse?

“Depends what it’s in,” she says brightly.

“Aw, look – I guess losing hurts at the time.

But you get over it and then, a lot of the time, you learn a lot more when you lose.

Challenges can make you better and lead to success. Also, our coach says this, and I think it’s really true: the sun always comes up the next day.”

Foiled. Right, are there any sports that you’re actually bad at? “Yes, many!” she begins promisingly. “I’m a terrible dancer, for starters. I’m not great at netball either – or anything artistic, really.”

Well, dancing and art aren’t quite sports, Ellyse, but ‘netball dunce’ will have to do for now. One thing that does cause her eyes to briefly widen is when we mention her counterpart, fiery England bowling spearhead Katherine Brunt.

“Ah! Angry. Aggressive. Those are the words that come to mind,” she says. “She’s a great bowler though. It’s just her natural way, I think... I don’t know if she’s that angry off the pitch. She can’t be.”

Pa i n a n d g a i n

Perry might express her competitiveness in a different way, but Australia losing the 2016 World Twenty20 final in an upset against the West Indies clearly hurts.

“What it does is give everyone a real emphasis on where you need to improve,” she says. “That’s for us as Australia – but also for the other teams, because the margin for error now is so much smaller as the teams get closer in terms of ability.

Now, any of the top teams in the world can knock one another off on their day, so we have to strive to play consistent cricket.”

Australia have a chance to reassert themselves on top of the pile in women’s cricket this summer. The defending ODI champions take part in a World Cup in England, with the final at Lord’s.

“Every world tournament in the past couple of years, whether it be the one-day World Cup or the World Twenty20, has really grown in stature. At India last year was probably the biggest of the bunch so far. But I know how much work has been put into planning this World Cup; how much the ECB and ICC are promoting it. It’s gonna be really exciting, essentially with it taking place at the home of cricket.”

Hosts England, looking revitalised under captain Heather Knight, join Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies (plus four other teams still to qualify) this summer.

Whichever side wins the World Cup is likely to have to go through Australia and Ellyse Perry to do it. Or – and we’ll say it, because Perry is probably too modest to – the Aussie all-rounder will go right through them. @otheralexreid For tickets to the ICC Women’s World Cup Final at Lord’s (July 23) go to icc-cricket.com/tickets

7 days Our pick Of the actiOn frOm the spOrting week ahead

all or nothing Michael Ainsworth/AP/REX/Shutterstock

NFL Green Bay Packers @ Atlanta Falcons Sky Sports 1, 7.30pm Pittsburgh Steelers @ New England Patriots Sky Sports 1, 11.40pm The term ‘clutch performance’ is not widely used beyond American sports, but Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ (pictured) display against the Dallas Cowboys last weekend is a prime example of one – summoning strength under pressure to influence a game.

The Cowboys tied at 31-31 with just 44 seconds on the clock. That gave Rodgers just enough time to move the ball to within field goal range, and for the Packers to convert to win the game 34-31.

Green Bay might be the form team in the NFL, but they had to overcome a poor start. Afer week 11, they were 4-6, leading people to question Mike McCarthy’s position as head coach. But they haven’t lost since – and now they face the Atlanta Falcons for the NFC title and a place in Super Bowl LI.

january 20-26

Sun

The Falcons will be no pushovers, however. The Atlanta offense has been brilliant all season, and quarterback Matt Ryan is in the best form of his career. He has an outstanding group of receivers headed by Julio Jones, while Mohamed Sanu and Taylor Gabriel have both been exceptional. Given this is also the final game at the Georgia Dome before the Falcons move to their new stadium, the atmosphere is guaranteed to be electric.

For the sixth consecutive year, the AFC Championship features the New England Patriots, who last weekend beat the Houston Texans 34-16, although the Patriots’ performance was one of their least impressive this season. Quarterback Tom Brady had a completion percentage of just 47.4 – his lowest this season and the lowest in all his postseason performances.

Their opponents this Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers, will likely provide a sterner test. The Steelers’ defense was exceptional against the Kansas City Chiefs, limiting their opponents to 16 points. Plus, although the Steelers didn’t score a touchdown themselves, their weapons on offense – Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and star running back Le’Veon Bell – will cause problems for any defense. A date in Houston beckons for the victors.

34

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January 20-26

1

Sat >

Snooker The Masters Final BBC Two & Eurosport 2, 1pm

Permutation stations

The Masters final takes place on Sunday, and you might think that the winner of this event, starring the world’s best 16 snooker players, is in pole position to claim April’s World Championship. Not so. Only one player in the past 20 years – Mark Williams, (pictured) in 2003 – has backed up a Masters win with a world title.

A tribute to the competitiveness of modern snooker, afer Stephen Hendry managed to do the Masters/ Worlds double four times between 1990 and 1996.

Sun

Rugby Union Champions Cup: Round 6

Only three Premiership clubs can reach the knockout rounds of Europe’s top-tier tournament, so most English eyes should start by taking in Exeter Chiefs’ trip to Clermont (Saturday, 1pm, BT Sport 2).

Rob Baxter’s charges need a bonus-point victory plus a few favours from other teams. Luckily, Jack Nowell (pictured) has looked electric.

Champions Saracens are already through. However, in hosting Toulon (Saturday, 3.15pm, BT Sport 2) they have a chance to shimmy up the all-important seeding ladder and dispose of Mike Ford’s men.

Owen Farrell was instrumental in a last-gasp comeback to draw against Scarlets. He will want to head into the Six Nations strongly.

On Sunday (3.15pm, BT Sport 2), Wasps take on a try-scoring mission in Parma. Zebre have been the poorest side in the competition, and Dai Young’s team need to pile on the points while hoping Toulouse turn over Connacht. Expect Nathan Hughes to carry all afernoon.

36

DJ spins into Abu DhAbi

Golf Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship Sky Sports 4, 7am

Fri >

The European Tour’s early-season blockbuster lost its leading man earlier this week, with four-time runner-up Rory McIlroy having to withdraw from the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship with a stress fracture of the rib.

The world number two will be absent from one of his favourite tournaments, then – but the world number three will be there. US Open champion Dustin Johnson (pictured) is making his Abu Dhabi bow, with two more of last year’s Major winners – Open champ Henrik Stenson and Masters hero Danny Willett – also in attendance. Last year’s first and second, Rickie Fowler and the big-hitting Belgian Thomas Pieters, are back for more, with emerging forces Alex Noren and Branden Grace floating dangerously. Young Englishmen Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick shouldn’t be discounted.

Even without McIlroy, there will be plenty for 2018 European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn to take in as he saunters round himself.

A European victory in the face of two of American golf’s biggest names would please the Dane no end.

www.sport-magazine.co.uk @sportmaguk facebook.com/sportmagazine

Cricket India v England: 3rd ODI Sky Sports 2, 8am

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Facing their demons

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£1 where solD hearty thanks to: ben wrigHt, stefan curtis, zaraH al-kudcy and alana irwin

England face the challenge of both a Virat Kohli-inspired India and some chilling memories as they play the final match of this one-day international series in Kolkata on Sunday. Eden Gardens was the scene for the 2016 World Twenty20 final, where Eoin Morgan’s limited-overs side briefly looked poised to score a victory until Carlos Brathwaite hit those four sixes from Ben Stokes’ final over.

In fairness, the robust Stokes (pictured) has never seemed cowed by the ordeal, and England’s limited-overs side has continued to improve in most areas. England’s general record in

Kolkata isn’t that bad either: they won the last Test they played here, four winters ago.

However, looking back at the players responsible for taking the wickets in that match – primarily Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Monty Panesar – only highlights the major problem with the current ODI/T20 sides.

Morgan has plenty of dynamic batting talent to call on, but no real magicians with the ball to go to when he urgently needs a wicket. With Kohli and company in breathtaking form, that’s a major problem for England at the coliseum that is Kolkata.

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Marcus Trescothick is the only England player to have scored a limited-overs century at Eden Gardens. He banged 121 off 109 balls in a 2002 ODI. England still lost by 22 runs

LAUNCH OF THE YEAR

2008

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Total Average Distribution: 306,384 January-June 2016 Don’t forget Help keep public transport clean and tidy for everyone by taking your copy of sport away witH you wHen you leave tHe bus or train.

PA Wire/PA Images, Tom Shaw/Getty Images, Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images, Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images, Getty Images

office manager laura cork (7826)

january 20-26

Big air Brit Winter Sport X Games BT Sport ESPN, 7.30pm Meet British snowboarder Katie Ormerod, who competes in the snowboard slopestyle event at next week’s X Games in Aspen

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Bradford to board Growing up, Ormerod was a regular at Snozone Castleford’s indoor slope and Halifax’s dry slope, where she started skiing at the age of three before moving to a board aged five.

Sweet 16 In 2014, aged 16, she made headlines around the world by becoming the

first female ever to land a backside double cork 1080.

she has also finished on the podium in Germany and South Korea.

Making history Earlier this month, Ormerod, now 19, became the first Brit to win a World Cup Big Air event, taking the title in Moscow in extreme temperatures of -29 degrees. It was Ormerod’s third World Cup podium this season –

Olympic dreams Afer missing out on the Sochi Winter Olympics with a knee injury, Ormerod is eyeing two medals at Pyeongchang in South Korea in 2018, in both the slopestyle and big air disciplines.

Champion Clues

Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images, Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Horse Racing Clarence House Chase ITV 4 & Racing UK, 3pm Three times in the past four years, the winner of Ascot’s Clarence House Chase in January has gone on to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March. With the mighty Douvan never entered this weekend, however, that record looks unlikely to be enhanced in 2017.

Sat

Instead, this year’s renewal gives the pretenders to the throne vacated by Sprinter Sacre a chance to stake their claim. Douvan’s stablemate Un De Sceaux (pictured), narrow winner of a dramatic Tingle Creek before Christmas, will start favourite to repeat his success in this race 12 months ago and is probably the most likely winner.

Henry De Bromhead sends over another Irish raider in Special Tiara, while Gary Moore

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saddles Ar Mad, who is expected to improve for his fourth in the Tingle Creek.

A stamina-sapping contest will need an impressive winner if Douvan is to sit a little less uncomfortably back in his box at the Willie Mullins’ yard.

Don’t bank on it.

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E xt ra t i m E

g a d g E t s

New horizons Sony Bravia A1 OLED TV

The world’s biggest tech companies have been showcasing their new inventions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sony unveiled a new range of ultra-HD OLED televisions, including the A1 series, which also features brand new ‘Acoustic Surface’ technology – built-in surround sound, which comes directly from the screen itself. £TBC | sony.com

LG Hub Robot

Amazon Echo meets Wall-E in LG’s home voice assistant. It can play (and bob along to) music, as well as pre-heat your oven, start your robot vacuum cleaner and stare at you with cold, menacing eyes. £TBC | lg.co.uk

Monster Battleship

Rule the waves with this powerful Bluetooth speaker. It’s waterproof, with six speakers and a built-in propeller, which means you can sail it around the water using a smartphone app. Take back control! $600, coming soon | monsterproducts.com

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Dell Canvas

Dell’s ‘smart desk’ concept combines a 27-inch touchscreen with a precise pen and a traditional monitor. It’s designed for fancy creative types like us, but all we can think is how great it would be for Football Manager. £TBC | dell.com

G R O O M I N G

Max power LAB Series Max LS Maxellence range

Consider this a meteoric rise in the quality of moisturiser for your face: LAB’s MAX LS Maxellence The Singular Cream (£105, 50ml) claims to contain extract from the heart of an asteroid, giving it a silky, ultra-hydrating quality.

The Dual Concentrate (£130, 50ml), meanwhile, promises to give you a younger and smoother appearance, plus firmer-feeling skin. A brighter complexion in 2017? We have lift-off. labseries.co.uk

Sisleyum for Men Anti-Age Revitalizer Given the price, you’d hope to feel 10 years old when you put this latest formula from Sisley to work. Firms, combats wrinkles and moisturises to leave skin rejuvenated. £165, 50ml | sisley-paris.co.uk

Bulldog Intensive 24hr Moisturiser Packed with essential oils and natural ingredients rich in omega 3, 6 and 9.

Reduces dryness and leaves skin feeling moisturised, smooth and non-greasy. £10, 50ml | bulldogskincare.com

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L’Oreal Men Expert Hydra Sensitive

A different sort of bark: enriched with birch sap for soothing, 24-hour hydration.

Reinforces the skin’s barrier, leaving it feeling more resistant to external aggressions. £7.99, 50ml | boots.co.uk, from February

LIVE & EXCLUSIVE NATIONAL RADIO COMMENTARY ON The REAL home of football

Crystal Palace v Everton Saturday, coverage from 2pm

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f I t n e S S

Move to lose Expert trainer and owner of W10 Performance gym Jean-Claude Vacassin reveals the most effective fat-loss methods. Also, part two of his four-week back to fitness guide

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ost of us have don’t have unlimited hours to spend in the gym each week, so we’re looking for maximum results in minimum time. All forms of exercise work if you do them long enough or intensely enough. At a base level, you should do the type of exercise you enjoy because that is what you will stick to. But if the goal is to maximise results in the time available, what is the most effective approach?

The truth is that there is no definitive answer. It depends. Everything has worked for somebody at some point, but that does not mean that it will work for everybody all of the time. We all respond differently, mentally and physically, to different types and intensity of exercise.

That said, and accepting there is no one rule for everyone, here is how I’d suggest most people (with general fitness goals) prioritise their training time while working out which combination works best for them.

1. Daily movement

Structured exercise is important, but at least 30 minutes of daily movement is essential. To lose weight, you ultimately need to expend more energy than you take in. The easiest way to do this is to increase our levels of daily activity through things such as cycling, using the stairs, kicking a ball around in the park and the big one: walking more.

2. Resistance training

If I had between one and three hours per week to dedicate to exercise, I’d prioritise resistance training. Performed correctly, it’s the best use of time for most when it comes to shedding fat. It has the capacity to increase our heart rate in the same way as other cardiovascular activities, while also helping us to develop strength and muscle, which provide the foundation for any personal fitness goals.

3. Interval training

If I had three to five hours per week, I’d add one or two interval sessions. There are various forms of interval training, all of which can be beneficial. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and other anaerobic approaches are hugely popular and can be very effective for the more experienced exercisers, but don’t discount slightly longer, aerobic intervals, which can be equally effective for a lot of people.

4. Steady state cardio

If I had more than five hours per week, I’d do more steady state cardio. I’m a big fan of traditional cardio. It’s something most of us should make more time for. It’s vital for overall cardiovascular health, a great destressor and an easy way to burn a few extra calories: all hugely important. w10performancegym.com

Illustrations: Willie Ryan

Week two If you’re new to the gym or have had an injury, improving basic stability and performing bodyweight movements will give you plenty of strength gains initially.

But once you’ve moved beyond this, you’ll need to get to grips with the weight room.

A well-designed strength training programme doesn’t need to be complicated. Choose three or four key movements and get good at them. To begin with, improve your technical proficiency, then progressively add load.

Bear in mind that strength training done correctly requires adequate rest, so that you can complete each movement safely and effectively. Do not rush between sets or rush the reps themselves. This is not circuit training. Take your time, think about how you are performing the movement, and progress steadily over time.

Here is an example of a basic strengthtraining programme that can be performed two to three times per week, depending on your goals and activities away from the gym. Warm up thoroughly before starting to make sure that the joints are ready to move and the muscles ready to fire.

Squat (3x5 reps) » The squat is perhaps the most effective lowerbody and core exercise you can do. Keep tension throughout, work through a full range of motion and keep your torso angle consistent. k

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f i t n e s s Overhead press (2x5 reps) » Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width. Brace your entire body before pressing the bar overhead.

Tip: you move around the bar, not the bar around you.

Deadlift (2x8 reps) » Start with the bar over your mid-foot.

Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width, adopting a neutral spine. Brace your core throughout the lift, keeping spine neutral throughout.

seated row (2x15 reps)

Optional conditioning finisher

» Place feet on the footpads and hold the handle at shoulder-width. Row the bar into your chest, contracting hard in the end position. Think about rowing your elbows through your ribs.

Rowing machine

Row 250m, rest for two minutes » Complete 10 burpees in the ‘rest’ period. » Repeat x 3

Note: Sets are to be completed in straight format, resting long enough to start the next set fresh. Select a weight that allows you to complete the desired number of reps with good form.

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