Sport magazine 315

Issue 315 | July 26 2013

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Contents

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Issue 315, July 26 2013 Radar 04 The ice men cometh (again) In EA’s NHL14. Absolutely worth getting yourself into a fistfight for

06 Fast in the past Michael Johnson takes us back to 1996, when he took aim at the 200m world record and fair obliterated it

08 Youth policy As we mark a year on from the Olympics, we present four names to keep an eye on come Rio 2016 oFeatures this coming week

16

Jessica Ennis-Hill New name, new goals, but there remains a steely determination about Team GB’s golden girl

24 2012 Olympic Legacy One year on from London 2012, now seems an appropriate time to focus in on its most repeated buzzword

29 David Weir As he heads back to the Olympic Stadium, the Weirwolf reflects on 12 months as a Paralympic legend

06

30 Anniversary Games

29

Athletics isn’t enjoying the best of summers, but that hasn’t stopped us looking on the bright side

Cover image: John Davis. This page: John Davis, Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/ Getty Images, Scott Heavey/Getty Images, Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

32 The Ashes After a one-sided second Test, we ask the seemingly unthinkable: is it all just a bit too easy for England?

Extra Time 46 Gadgets The HTC One – or, as Chris de Burgh would call it, the Smartphone in Red

48 Kit To coincide with this weekend’s Virgin Active London Triathlon, we select the kit to get you going

32

30

54 Games Our pick of all the big releases in August, led by Splinter Cell: Blacklist | July 26 2013 | 03

Radar

W

e used to love the annual NHL video games. With our grasp of the rules as slippery as an ice rink, the matches soon devolved into low-friction chaos, the frenetic end-to-end action punctuated only by the ability to instigate a virtual fistfight with your opponent. Alas, we’ve found the newer editions ,with their focus on ‘realism’ and ‘authenticity’ much too complicated for our tastes.

Luckily, the latest in the series, NHL14, will include a retro, top-down ‘Anniversary Mode’ (pictured, above) that echoes the 1994 edition. There are updates to the modern part too – including improved physics, which should make the fighting even better.

Out September on Xbox360 and PS3

04 | July 26 2013 |

p06 – Flashback: when Michael Johnson destroyed his own 200m world record

p08– A year on from London, we pick our ones to watch for Rio 2016

Radar

<<FLASHBACK<< August 1 1996

Michael Johnson lights up the Atlanta Games The sprinter lived up to the hype in his home games in 1996 by winning gold in the 400m and then the 200m, knocking three tenths of a second off his own world record in the process

“I knew going into that season what the goal was going to be. There’s no way to really duplicate that situation of going into an Olympic Games on home soil, with the expectation and the pressure, so from a mental standpoint it was just about trying to plan for every contingency.

The 400m went exactly as I had planned it.

I didn’t really hold back. I missed the world record by two tenths of a second. I knew the 200m was going to be the more difficult race, but qualifying went really smoothly.

I wanted to get into that final as easy as possible, conserve as much as I could. After already having run four rounds of the 400m, I wanted to just have as much left for that final as possible. At the time Frankie Fredericks and Ato Boldon [eventual silver and bronzemedallists in the 200m] were running tremendously, so I thought I would have to break my world record to win. I knew I could run faster, but you’ve got to do it on the day.

I’ve always been something of a private person, so I can’t say that I really enjoyed all of the fame – it took some getting used to.

I can understand why people would think I’d be disappointed when Usain Bolt broke the 200m world record, but I don’t think about that – I don’t identify myself as ‘Michael Johnson, world record holder’, even with the one I still have [400m]. I don’t think about the years I’ve held it – I think about the nine years I spent trying to break it, and it’s the same with the 200m. That’s a memory I’ll always have, and it’s never going to go away.”

Perform has partnered with Michael Johnson Performance to offer performance training services to elite athletes and schoolchildren.

Find out more at spireperform.com

S

uper-addictive mobile game Stick Cricket is back with a new mode that lets you team up with friends or strangers to try and build a partnership.

You can also play alongside classic players and engage in turn-based challenges like hitting five sixes in five overs or making 50 runs without getting out. Don’t hog the strike!

Stick Cricket Partnerships, free on iOS and Android

06 | July 26 2013 |

Glenn Cratty/Hulton/Getty Images

Partner Play

Radar

Ones to watch, one year later O

ne year on from the Opening Ceremony of London 2012, which of course promised to ‘inspire a generation’, we’ve picked out four young British athletes who have grown up around the hype and hyperbole since the Games was awarded to London in 2005. Some had their first taste of the Olympic experience in London, and if all goes well they could make their mark on the medal table at the next Games in 2016. They’d best get cracking, though: there’s only 1,106 days to go.

adam gemili Already European U23 and world junior 100m champion, the Dagenham & Redbridge defenderturned sprinter impressed at London 2012, finishing third in his semi final in 10.06s.

The 19-year-old is yet to break the 10-second barrier, but some places have opened up at the top of the sprinting game recently...

kyle edmund The 18-year-old South African-born tennis player has won the French and US Opens at junior level. He has perhaps understandably struggled so far at senior level – he went out in the first round at Wimbledon this year – but by the time Rio comes around Edmund will hope to have established himself on the senior tour.

sam oldham Already an Olympic medallist in the team all-around event in London, he took silver in the horizontal bar at this year’s European Gymnastics Championships in Moscow as well. Still just 20, Oldham will be key as British gymnastics looks to build on a successful 2012 in Brazil.

katarina johnson-thompson The heir to Jessica Ennis-Hill, 20-year-old Katarina JohnsonThompson has an equally awkward name and bags of talent. She finished 15th in the heptathlon at the Olympics, but has won gold at world youth, world junior and European U23 level.

One to watch for next year’s Commonwealth Games – and beyond.

Driving range

08 | July 26 2013 |

All pictures Getty Images

M

eet the golf cart of the future, as imagined by Mercedes-Benz.

Based on suggestions from fans at the Open, the German car makers have designed this concept buggy. A heads-up display on the windscreen will show you course layout and information, and there’s an iPad docking station for access to weather data or for communicating with the clubhouse if you run out of drinks in the internal fridge. The ‘fore’ button will even send a warning message to other carts in the vicinity. Oh, and there’s somewhere to put your clubs too.

Radar Opinion The long run: Froome’s Tour de France win should stand the test of time in www.sport-magazine.co.uk @sportmaguk facebook.com/sportmagazine

more ways than one

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That legacy thingy How will we know that stars such as Chris Froome are really influencing our children?

S Publisher Simon Caney @simoncaney

As it turned out, they panned out just fine. The London Olympics and Paralympics were brilliant celebrations of both sport and all that’s good about this country.

But 12 months on, where are we now? That word ‘legacy’ – what does it mean? On page 24 we look at what has been done in the past year and what the future holds, but it’s hard to see any tangible evidence just yet that we are turning into a more active nation.

Wisely, Baroness Sue Campbell, chair of the Youth Sport Trust, stresses that results will be seen over a generation rather than a year. And, as it turns out, the Olympics will be only a part of what inspires today’s children. This year has given us its own batch of genuine sporting heroes: Andy Murray, Chris Froome, Justin Rose, Jimmy Anderson and George North, to name but a few. This is truly a golden era for sport in the UK, and these are the people who will inspire the next generation.

It’s hard to see how that won’t happen, but we won’t really know for at least another 10 years whether ‘legacy’ means anything at all.

The reaction to Froome’s epic victory in the Tour de France was strangely muted. Perhaps we were spoiled by Sir Bradley last year, who is that rarity – the superstar sportsman with personality to match. Maybe we’re just becoming used to success on two wheels. But either way, Froome’s win should be celebrated every bit as much as Wiggins’. Now: head to head in the Tour next year, chaps?

Last week’s Open was one of the best I can remember.

A final-day leaderboard packed with star names, all of whom had a chance at some stage or another – this is what Majors should be about. In Phil Mickelson it produced a fitting champion for Muirfield, which is a truly wonderful course – the best of any of those that stage the Open.

While it is a superb test of golf, though, it must sort out its membership policy: I suspect it will have done so the next time the Claret Jug is contested at the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

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10 | July 26 2013 |

@Sykesy_Katie

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@LeeJPetchey

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o what were we all doing this Friday last year?

If memory serves, I was thinking about leaving the office early because of the inevitable transport problems in London. It was surely going to be chaos. I was unsure how the next few weeks were going to pan out.

Radar Opinion

It’s like this…

Bill Borrows

Flats on Friday

David Lyttleton

W

Transfer bombshell league

I

received a text from an old Citysupporting friend last week. It read: “Have you heard the Messi rumour?” I texted him back: “City? United? Gay?” “City. It’s on the Manchester Evening News website.” In the time it to took to verify this – approximately 0.032 seconds – and then reject it as cheap hit-driving speculation of the cruellest kind, a mixture of disappointment and frustration had descended that was the yin to the yang when Robinho signed on the last day of the summer transfer window in 2008.

In recent weeks, City have been linked to Edinson Cavani (his mum said we were going to sign him), Isco (he wants to join up with Manuel Pellegrini again), Zlatan Ibrahimović (sulking because PSG were after Cavani), Falcao (£54m offer agreed in May, apparently), Angel Di Maria (deal held up as Real Madrid wait to sign Gareth Bale), Bale himself (City prepared to offer £80m), Robert Lewandowski (‘officially interested’, unofficially) and Titus Bramble (keen to partner him with Vincent Kompany).

Now all of those, bar one – Tottenham can keep Bale – are guaranteed to induce repetitive strain injury as fans hit the internet and tweet and text their mates with these ‘news’ turds. But you permit yourself to dream. If a pair of weathered old campaigners like me and Messi texter – who both remember being told to get ready for Franz

12 | July 26 2013 |

Beckenbauer to take over at City before being presented with Brian Horton – still get excited, can you imagine what it is like for a nine-year-old boy?

I should know, I live with one.

Every day he files urgent hard schoolground news (‘Max’s dad reckons…’) like a war reporter broadcasting under fire from a foxhole outside Baghdad, until each target moves to a different club or the window closes. I wouldn’t seek to ban it, but I would like every national newspaper and reputable website to be forced to enter their speculation into a league table format with points awarded for correct information, exclusives and insane calls that come true – and points deducted for wild speculation that keeps young boys and old farts awake at night. They would, of course, all have to publish said table. Could be a relegation battle for The Daily Star and Sunday People. @billborrows

Plank of the Week Michael Clarke, a darkened room “I know a lot of the crowd laughed when I said [Australia could win the series]… but all of our top order have made a 50 and we need someone who can go on and make a big 100 – as England have done.” Sometimes the words are just enough.

hen sports teams lose, we are used to hearing players and coaches alike promise to take the positives out of the situation. For me, this – along with ‘credit to the opposition’ – is just something that people have become used to saying. I’m never sure it actually means anything.

I’d actually prefer it if these guys had a bit of fun with the interviewers. Song title competitions are often a good bet, or the ‘keyword challenge’. I once had to get ‘snorkel’ into an interview, which was tough. I also challenged Justin Harrison, former Australia and Bath second row, to shoehorn in the phrase ‘cougar in a car’ during an appearance on Sky Sports. He managed it with the sort of panache I never saw coming. It was sublime.

And anyway, what positives are ever really taken from a hammering? I can see the lessons of a hard-fought loss being valuable but, on the whole, a thrashing generally means you’re not good enough – and that’s a tough one to reverse.

I wonder what the Australian cricket team will be taking from the second Test in terms of positive learnings. Perhaps they will go down the route trademarked by Norfolk Radio’s third favourite son, Alan Partridge, who once so enigmatically said: “Right now I need two positives: one to cancel out the negative, and one just so I’ve got a positive.” This was a man with a plan, and the Aussies would do well to keep it this simple.

The thing is, I’m just not sure there’s much they can do, and I mean it when I say that’s a proper shame.

Some call one-sided matches dull, and a good proportion of the time I’m inclined to agree with them.

Just as England getting ritually trounced by Australia for years got a little tiresome, so it will if this apparent turning of the tables continues. What we want – well, what I want, anyway – is a proper contest. The first Test was epic in its drama, but the visiting team that so many experts predicted would turn up indeed appeared for round two. From my desk-mounted iPad, it just doesn’t seem that they have the quality to resist England, seemingly unnecessary collapses notwithstanding.

So what on earth will they take from another humping, should results follow form? They’ll get a decent tan, I suppose, and that won’t happen too often during UK tours; at least the company that produces that sunblock/mime artist concealer will be happy.

I want England to win the series by way of a whitewash, naturally, but I don’t actually want them to get there too easily. Not to save Australian hearts – please, this is sport, and suffering is part of the deal.

But I’ve played in rugby matches and blitzed the opposition before and, while running riot is fun at the time, it all feels a little less fulfilling once the bright lights fade. So let’s hope that the England boys do a proper job on the Aussies, but let’s also hope for a ding-dong battle to make the victory as famous and worthwhile as it deserves to be. @davidflatman

Frozen in time

Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Swann song James Pattinson is nothing if not plucky, but his 35 in Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second innings on Sunday (ending here, LBW to Graeme Swann) was his last action of this Ashes tour. A stress fracture to his back was caused, ironically, by bowling too much and not getting enough rest between innings as his teammates slumped to 128 all out from just 53 overs. The Aussies are bad enough as it is without losing one of their best batsmen...

14 | July 26 2013 |

| 15

r e d n o W n a m o W JessIca Ennis-Hill

r e h m o r nf o r a e y cs, i A o r e h Londoan Ennis-Hill Jessics with a new return new goals, name, en a cape and ev VIS a d n H o J HY: P a r G o T o PH

16 | July 26 2013 |

uperman might seem an unlikely saviour for an Olympic champion, but he helped Jessica Ennis-Hill recover from her lowest ebb.

With her foot in a cast after the career-threatening stress fracture to her right ankle that wrecked her 2008 season, the heptathlete watched episode after episode of Smallville – the story of Clark Kent’s development from provincial teen to global icon. “It definitely kept my mind off being miserable and upset about being injured,” she tells us in an exclusive interview one year on from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“I don’t think I’m much like Clark Kent,” says Ennis-Hill, laughing when we ask whether she sees any similarities between the girl from the Steel City and the Man of Steel – beyond the red and blue Lycra, of course. It’s not quite a school bus full of kids, but she did bear unprecedented pressure on her shoulders as the unofficial

face of London 2012. A heroic performance in the heptathlon saw her set three personal bests and surge across the line first in the 800m to add the polish to the now renowned Super Saturday – a perfect performance from start to finish.

But, behind the scenes, it wasn’t nearly as smooth as it looked. “I was really nervous the whole year,” she reveals.

“Obviously when you do interviews you have to keep a strong face, but the beginning of the year didn’t go the way I wanted it to, and I had a lot of trouble with the long jump that I had to keep really positive with. I kept saying that it was all fine, but I had terrible sessions – right up until the holding camp before we went into London.”

It’s certainly strange to hear her admit to the unseen worries playing on her mind, given her mask of composure. “Lots of little things crept into my mind,” she admits, with the honesty that made her one of the most compelling stories of the Games. k

Jessica Ennis-Hill “I went to one of my first Diamond League events in the hurdles, false-started and got disqualified. So I was thinking: ‘Oh gosh, what if I do that in London?’ It’s never a smooth ride; there are all these different things going on behind the scenes, and things are playing on your mind.”

As well as the pressure she put on herself, there was, of course, that immense national expectation. Her face looked down from billboards and buses across the country – in her book she talks about not being able to indulge in a visit to her local chippy because of her own face judging her from a poster.

At times, she says, it was all too much.

“If I’d had a bad session, it would get on top of me, and I’d come home worrying that everything was kind of falling apart,” she reflects. “People just expected me to win no matter what, and I really knew how hard it was going to be. I’m not gonna lie – it did worry me quite a bit.”

You can almost sense the relief washing over her in one of the iconic images of the Games. The photo of Ennis-Hill crossing the line in that 800m will surely be made into a statue some day: eyes closed, head tilted back, arms raised in celebration. However, she admits that celebrating in that manner was “totally out of character”. She sounds genuinely horrified when we ask whether she regrets not opting for a more outlandish victory move, or a more marketable shape such as the ‘Bolt’ or the cringeworthy ‘Mobot’.

“I would never do that,” she insists. ”Putting my arms in the air was pretty out there for me, so I’m not about to do any dances! I’m quite a reserved person anyway, so normally I just get on with competing.

Inside I’m either really nervous, or happy or angry, but on top you can’t tell. With the Olympics, it just completely took over me.

It was the greatest thing I ever wanted to achieve and I’d done it. It was relief that came out of me more than anything.”

, s u o v r e n r e h T “i’m ei y or Angry, or hApp cAn’T Tell” buT you

T h e re Tur n

If everything up to and including that famous celebration marked part one of Ennis-Hill’s career – the origin story, if you will – then Issue 268 | August 10 2012

Jess Ennis

How my Olympic dream came true

Ennis-Hill graces Sport’s cover from August 10 last year, after crowning her heptathlon gold by winning the 800m Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

the sequel hasn’t gone quite as well as she would have liked, at least on the track. A nagging ankle injury is casting doubt on her participation in this weekend’s Anniversary Games, staged in London to mark a year since the Opening Ceremony. There’s no heptathlon, so if fit Ennis-Hill will be taking on the world’s best hurdlers and long-jumpers.

A greater concern is the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, which start in a fortnight’s time. As things stand, the 27-year-old will go into them after a long break from competition. With that in mind, she has already admitting to having to come to terms with the fact that this year “will not be like previous years”.

She can’t wait, however, to get her feet back in the blocks. “I’m looking forward to kind of blowing off the cobwebs and getting back into it,” she tells us. But she does admit to having some nerves: “My last real big competition was obviously the Olympics, so I have a tough act to follow...”

One of her main rivals, Tatyana Chernova, will be competing in front of a home crowd in Moscow – a “complete reversal”, says Ennis-Hill, of the situation in London, where the Russian took bronze. Chernova did pip

Ennis-Hill to gold at the worlds in 2011, however, and will be one of the favourites – particularly with the Brit’s training so badly disrupted. “I’d love to go to the World Championships and come back with the gold medal, but I’m very aware it’s going to be tough,” she says. “Chernova will definitely be looking forward to competing there, and I’m sure she’ll want to win gold at home.”

It was always going to be tough returning to the grind of training after the Olympic high.

It was down to earth with a bump back in September, at her first “horrendous” post-Games session under the supervision of long-time coach Toni Minichiello, but Ennis-Hill allowed herself to bask in the victory glow until the turn of the year. “You’re still excited by what you’ve achieved,” she says. “But as soon as it turns 2013, you have to put that to one side and refocus.”

With her Olympic medal back in its box, it took Ennis-Hill some time to build up her motivation again after the Games.

“It’s definitely harder at the start, because you start on a huge high and have to get back into normality and do all the work,” she adds.

“But as the months went on and the new year came round, that’s when I kind of got my motivation back and got into it.”

A n e w ho pe

The big occasion has always been the real motivator for Ennis-Hill. She would never admit it, but there was a hint of playing to the crowd about the way she forced her way to the front in the 800m, despite a win not being required to secure gold. “I love competing in front of a big crowd and having that adrenaline of everyone there watching,” is as far as she will go on that front. “I did a lot of hard running sessions for the 800m; I was always killing myself on the track, so in the competition I felt I had to give it everything.”

We ask whether Ennis-Hill thinks she will find it difficult going from the cauldron of the Olympic Stadium to Diamond League events in places such as Estonia and Finland.

“London was the highlight of my career,” she says. “It’s going to be hard to top, so I just have to take each competition at a time and see what I can do.”

Whatever she can or can’t do in Moscow and beyond, Ennis-Hill will look back on 2013 with almost as much fondness as 2012.

Because, after a long engagement that straddled the Games, she finally wed her fiancé Andy in May – hence the new moniker.

Her husband is a construction site manager, and she says being married to someone outside athletics helps take her mind off the pressures she faces: “We do talk about athletics at home sometimes, but it’s nice because we have something else to talk about. It helps not to get too stressed and wrapped up in the sporting world, and it helps me try and put things into perspective – so it’s definitely a good thing for me.”

Outside of that fortress of solitude, Ennis-Hill hasn’t quite had to adopt a secret alter-ego, but she admits she has to work k | July 26 2013 | 19

Jessica Ennis-Hill

T h e q u esT for p eac e

The city’s Don Valley Stadium is where it all started for a “scrawny” 11-year-old Ennis, but it is soon to be demolished to cut council costs. “It’s really disappointing that it’s going to be knocked down,” she says. “That’s where I started – and it’s been a big part of why I’ve been able to be successful. Having such a big stadium in my home city has been inspiring, and it’s such a shame that all the kids in the city aren’t going to have that.”

She laughs when we suggest that if they build a new track it will almost certainly be named after her, but the serious tone soon returns. “I jut hope we can find funding to put money into developing one of the other tracks in Sheffield, so there is still a base for myself and other athletes,” she says. “I think we need that in our city.”

Despite the closure of her former training base, Ennis-Hill says she does see some signs that the Olympics have done as promised and ‘inspired a generation’.

“When I’m training at the English Institute for Sport, there are absolutely loads of kids down there, and I do see a lot of enthusiasm for athletics locally. I think it’s gonna perhaps 20 | July 26 2013 |

take a little bit longer to see the true legacy, but where I train there are people excited about athletics and wanting to get into it.”

Ennis-Hill refuses to be drawn into specifics on her own future: “It’s so hard.

You don’t know what’s going to happen from session to session or year to year, or how your body or motivation levels hold up. Rio is definitely a goal for me; that’s a long-term thing that I’m working towards. I don’t know... I’ll be 30 in Rio and probably on the downward spiral of my career, so I’m not thinking after that point just yet.”

Ennis-Hill’s hurdles time in London would have won her gold in the individual event in Beijing, and she’s considering giving up the

e l p o e p “now xpecT will ekeep me To g for winnin Time” a long physically demanding heptathlon to focus solely on hurdles in future. “I really love the hurdles,” she says. “There are likely to be a few more competitive hurdle races, so I can see how I measure up against the other girls.”

Whatever she decides to do, Ennis-Hill says she’s sure there will always be pressure.

“People will expect me to keep winning for a long time, but if I achieve nothing else I would still be the happiest girl in the world with what I achieved last year and the few years before,” she smiles. “In that respect, it’s a nice position to be in. I’m still in the middle of my career and hopefully I can achieve more.”

Although she jokingly answers “kryptonite” when we ask what her weakness is, finally buying into our tortured superhero analogy, it’s hard to see a reason why Ennis-Hill shouldn’t keep achieving in the long term.

In London, she proved beyond doubt that she can cope with that pressure and handle the unique expectation placed upon her.

She might not be saving the world, but one year on the quiet girl from Sheffield turned heroine of the Games returns, ready to take it on again.

Amit Katwala @amitkatwala Jessica Ennis is Vitality Ambassador for PruHealth and PruProtect, helping to motivate people to live a healthy lifestyle and rewarding them for doing so. www.pruhealth.co.uk, www.pruprotect.co.uk

Credit

hard to keep her private and public personas separate amidst the maelstrom of photo shoots and television adverts.

“I’m still a very private person,” she insists, before breaking out into her infectious laugh when Sport asks her to elaborate. “I don’t go out in a disguise! But I’ve always got a hoody that I can wear when I’m taking the dog out for a walk or things like that, so I can kind of keep quiet and get on with my day. Things take so long when people want to come and speak to you all the time. You know, you might be in a rush getting to training, and people want pictures. But, of course, it’s all lovely.”

What of her interactions with a still well-wishing public? “It’s definitely different now,” she says. “People recognise you more now and want to wish you good luck. It’s still strange when people come up to me and start screaming, but it’s lovely that people admire what you do. I get lots of strange letters. There’s one guy who sends figurines – he makes little cut-out wooden figures of me on a little stand that he’s hand-painted and he sends me those...”

She enjoys fierce local support from her hometown of Sheffield – bewilderingly, Sheffield United have even named one of their stands after her. She feels that the city has offered her an environment that has helped her achieve success, and was adamant in her refusal to move to the metropolis of London when asked to so by the then head of UK Athletics, Charles van Commenee.

“I think where you’re from and how you’ve been brought up and the people around you are a huge part of who you are,” she says.

“It’s a friendly city and people are very down to earth. They support what you’re doing, but they don’t kind of blow smoke up your arse.

They just let you get on with it.”

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2012 Olympic Legacy

Built to last?

Just 12 months ago, the world waited to see how Britain would handle playing host to the greatest show on Earth.

We smashed it. But how are we handling our postGames responsibilities?

Sport asks the experts

O

ne year on from London’s finest hour, there’s one question being asked: was it worth it? It’s a simple query, but one without a straightforward answer. There is no doubt that London 2012 was a roaring success in the most obvious and immediate ways – huge crowds created some of the best atmospheres the Olympics has ever seen, and the home nation (that’s us) rose to the occasion better than anyone could have imagined possible.

But there is no escaping the ‘L’ word. What exactly did Lord Coe envisage when he promised that the Olympic Games would leave a significant and lasting legacy for sport in Britain? His pledge to “inspire a generation” captured the imagination of the International Olympic Committee members who awarded the 2012 Games to London in Singapore.

But was it a pledge with any firm foundations behind it, or simply an effective catchphrase?

“There is no question that young people found the Games inspirational,” Baroness Sue Campbell tells Sport in a warm yet matter-of-fact manner, which harks back to her days as a PE teacher in the early 1970s. Now chair of the Youth Sport Trust, her background imbues her with a wealth of experience in sports leadership. She spent 10 years as chief 24 | July 26 2013 |

executive of the National Coaching Foundation, and was chair of UK Sport from 2003 until her retirement earlier this year.

“Interestingly, it was marginally more the Paralympics that inspired a lot of youngsters,” she continues. “They saw individuals doing great things and being great athletes, but against all sorts of challenges. It made them realise that, no matter what challenges they faced, they could succeed. So there has been a real inspirational moment – the challenge now is turning that into sustained participation.”

Cause and effect One man who has seen the after-effects of Super Saturday and Thrilling Thursday from close quarters is the man who coached Jessica Ennis-Hill to Olympic heptathlon gold, Toni Minichiello. “Here in Sheffield [where he coaches Ennis-Hill], the number of youngsters getting involved in the sport has quadrupled,” he says. “We’ve gone from about 200 people involved in kids’ academies here to 700, plus a small waiting list. The Olympics was a massive stimulus.

“But there are downsides, and whether there is truly a legacy I have to question – a legacy being a long-lasting, permanent feature of the Olympics.”

Minichiello’s view is unsurprising considering that, since the Games, he has been made redundant by British Athletics and has seen one of his main coaching venues – and the place where he first worked with a talented 13-year-old who would go on to be an Olympic champion – condemned to closure.

Minichiello has described the closing of Don Valley Stadium this September as a “hefty blow” to Ennis-Hill’s hope of defending her Olympic title in 2016.

But when it comes to his own circumstances, he sees far wider issues at work. “We do not have enough coaches and we don’t have a professionalism of coaches” he says. “There’s always an overreliance on volunteers. I was employed for a while and am now – strictly speaking – a volunteer too.

But there’s a limit to what volunteers can do.

“There should have been a move towards the professionalisation of coaching so that people could actually earn a living from it, or develop a career.

There should also have been more of an emphasis on recruiting coaches before the Olympics, so that we could cope with this. These are the same problems we had after we won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and the Ashes in 2005 – you just couldn’t cope with the influx afterwards. So the lessons were there, but they hadn’t been learned.”

Matt Prior

Toni Minichiello Coach to Jessica Ennis-Hill

Baroness Sue Campbell Chair of the Youth Sport Trust

Liz Nicholl Chief Executive of UK Sport

Talking about inspiring a generation: an enraptured Olympic Stadium last summer (above); Ellie Simmonds prepares for the women’s 50m freestyle (below)

From small acorns…

Baroness Campbell agrees with Minichiello’s view, but with one exception: elite coaches.

“UK Sport has doubled its investment in elite coaching for the Rio cycle, but that’s only a relatively small group,” she says. “Look at coaching generally: we’re investing only in the top of the tree, but the whole trunk – which includes coaches from mums and dads to national-level junior athletes – has no structure at all. It requires real investment to change that.”

Investment in primary schools is the most important factor, says Campbell, in ensuring the inspired generation grows up to be an inspiring one: “If you want to inspire a generation, you have to start at the beginning of the generation. Changing people’s behaviour is much harder than getting people to behave in a certain way early on in life.

“In developed nations around the world, we are battling against a more sedentary lifestyle – so it has become incredibly hard to get people to adopt physical activity as part of daily life. The only way you tackle that is by changing the mindset of kids that physical activity is not something that’s nice to do, but something you need to do. Just like thinking about developing your numeracy and literacy, the business of developing your physical literacy is key.”

Keeping the winning habit At the opposite end of the scale to school sport are the likes of Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and Ennis-Hill – the gold-medal winners who are supported by Britain’s high-performance sports agency, UK Sport.

“Our agenda is to ensure we develop a more sustainable and successful performance system, so that those of us who felt, saw and enjoyed the success in London 2012 will have the chance to see it again and again,” explains UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl. “Making sure the pathways between participation, talent and performance are really strong is a big one for us, so that we continue to have athletes with medal potential coming through.”

Judging whether UK Sport has been successful is more straightforward than assessing whether the youth of today have been convinced to ditch their PlayStations and iPads in favour of a kick-about in the local park. Medal tables are a bit of a giveaway.

But Nicholl says it’s also UK Sport’s remit to keep prodding and poking the nation into remembering just how great sport can be by making use of their main assets – the athletes themselves.

“We fund 1,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and we’re expecting them to give up five days of their time each year to inspire the next generation through school and community sports, making that connection so that our successful athletes are inspiring young people to do sport,” she explains.

One thing London 2012 proved is that Britain’s appetite for watching live sport remains insatiable.

Even so, UK Sport is doing its damnedest to satisfy that appetite through its Gold Event Series. > | 25

John MacDougall/AFP/GettyImages, Clive Rose/Getty Images

The experts

She is not alone in prioritising primary school sport, which is why there was such an outcry when education secretary Michael Gove dismantled the School Sports Partnerships (SSPs) in 2010 – the national PE scheme that had been backed by £162m of funding.

“Some would argue they [the SSPs] were doing a good job, and some would say otherwise, but at least it had a level of permanency to it,” says Minichiello.

He’s concerned the new funding plan for school sport, which was announced in March and pledged £150m a year for the next two years, doesn’t go far enough. “It’s all piecemeal stuff, not legacy in the true sense that it’s got any permanency to it.

“Kids in schools should get a minimum of four hours of physical activity per week from a teacher who has been trained to deliver activities like sports, dance and outdoor pursuits such as trekking. At the moment, during a three-year period, primary school teachers get just six hours of instruction on how to deliver sport in schools.”

Remember your first PE lesson? That’s probably because there wasn’t much memorable about it, according to Campbell, who says a child’s first experience of physical education has often been delivered by teachers that are “lacking the confidence and in some cases the competence to deliver PE well”. The new funding could make a big difference, she says, but only if used in the right way: “We’ve got to put a lot of that money into training our teachers, and it has to be a two-pronged attack – focused on helping the teachers we’ve already got to be more effective in PE, and on changing initial teacher training so we’re getting better quality primary PE teachers coming into schools.”

Matt Prior

Pete Norton/Getty Images, Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

2012 Olympic Legacy

“We’re targeting bringing up to 70 major, sport-specific events at world and European level to Britain over the next six years” says Nicholl. “We’ve won about 24 bids already, and have a number of them still live. And they’re in various locations around the nation – not just in London. It’s a platform to inspire. Not only for those watching, but also the athletes performing in front of a home crowd and the volunteers, too.”

With high performance at the forefront of UK Sport’s minds, then, what does Nicholl make of the closure of the Don Valley Stadium and the plight of athletes such as long jump Olympic champion Greg Rutherford, who has struggled for sponsorship? ”It’s taking the landscape time to settle down following a big commercial focus on London 2012,” she says. “Before we get back to business as usual, there will inevitably be some winners and some losers.

“It’s important that every athlete with the potential to deliver medals is able to access the right facilities.

But there will inevitably be some closures and new openings – and it’s that period in between a closing and an opening that’s the most difficult time.”

Rutherford’s situation also has its basis in the harsh reality of the commercial world, says Nicholl.

“Sponsors are always going to be looking at future potential, and there may be some shifts in their thinking about which athletes and sports to support,” she explains. “And they’ll be making those decisions for commercial reasons.”

Small changes, big differences Sponsorship makes a huge difference at the other end of the scale, though, and Minichiello believes the Government could be doing more to encourage sponsors into sport. “If there’s truly going to be a legacy from this, there should be tax breaks for people sponsoring sports teams with youngsters,” he says. “So if you personally run a business and want to support an under-14s football team by buying them a kit or paying for their pitch hire or floodlights, those things should be encouraged.

“I remember during the Games, one of the Olympic sponsors wanted to make available to their staff the 26 | July 26 2013 |

opportunity to go on a coaching course – which the company was going to pay for. But they were told it was a gift in kind, meaning it would be taxable, so they dropped the idea altogether. If a company wants to send someone on a coaching course to then give back to the community, that should be tax-exempt.

For any government truly interested in sport and trying to change the health of a nation, those kinds of things would be automatic.”

The man named UK Coach of the Year for overseeing Ennis-Hill’s rise to the top chuckles when asked whether the people with the power to act on his suggestions have ever asked for his views on how to secure a legacy from London 2012: “I’m the son of immigrant workers up north – what do I know?

I get no kudos stood next to a minister, but if I’m Jessica Ennis, then I do. What happens in sport is that, politically, they’re obsessed with celebrity.

So they’ll ask the people who perform what should happen – never the people behind them.”

Campbell recalls the phrase “you’re never a prophet in your own land” when talking of Minichiello.

He is one of many people with the passion and ideas that could make a difference to ensuring Lord Coe’s promise to the IOC in Singapore proves to be more than a platitude designed to win votes. She is another one, as is Nicholl.

But 12 months after the Games is no time to draw conclusions on whether the legacy has been a success, says Campbell: “The test will be: is this generation of young people a more physically active, more sporty, healthier generation? If the answer to that is no, then I will say we didn’t deliver on what we promised. But no nation has taken an Olympic Games and been able to create a boom in participation with it.

It’s a massively difficult thing to do. But then nobody has tried to do it in a generational way, and that’s where we have to start: with a new generation.”

Sarah Shephard @sarahsportmag

Toni Minichiello is 2012 UK Coach of the Year and Powerade ambassador, helping promote Powerade’s personalised Sports Bottle campaign.

Visit poweradegb.com

‘There will be winners and losers,’ says Liz Nicholl.

Two of the latter: The Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, which will close in September (above left), and Greg Rutherford (above), who has struggled for sponsorship despite his gold-medal win in London

3.86m Number of 16 to 25-year-olds playing sport regularly – an increase of 63,000 in the past year Sport England’s Active People survey. Findings are for the year to April 2013

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David Weir

Ahead of his return to the track he dominated at last year’s Paralympics, David Weir tells Sport about his life in the limelight and the pain of getting back into peak condition

b

efore London 2012, David Weir had won the London Marathon a recordequalling six times, had six Paralympic medals (two of them gold) hidden away in his south London home, and had been appointed an MBE. Yet he remained one of the lesser-known lights of British sport.

No longer. Weir’s heroics at last summer’s Paralympics, at which he won four gold medals across distances starting at 800m and ending at 26.2 miles, have rightly made him a household name – and one that has played a huge role in attracting a sell-out crowd to the Olympic Stadium for Sunday’s International Para Challenge at the Anniversary Games.

That 10-day spell last August transformed Weir the wheelchair racer into ‘The Weirwolf’, with a theme tune and specially designed helmet to match. But the plaudits and trophies were forgotten as early as January 8 2013 – a date that still elicits a wince of pain from Weir. “It was my first day back in training after four months out,” he recalls.

“It was tough. When I have time out, the first week back is always sort of alright and you think: ‘Oh, this is okay.’ But then your body

starts to ache and you’re like: ‘What am I doing?’ That first session back was just a gentle six-mile push to go through the motions really, but I remember my lungs burning a lot.

“I always go back at the wrong time of year, too – when it’s freezing cold, dark and horrible outside. It was the coldest winter I have ever experienced – the wind was painful – but it was what I had to do to get ready for the London Marathon.”

everybody hurts, sometImes

Weir’s attempt to surpass Tanni GreyThompson’s record of six victories on The Mall ended in disappointment this year, when the 33-year-old finished fifth, two seconds behind winner Kurt Fearnley.

“I was devastated for five or 10 minutes,” says Weir, with typical understatement.

“But then I realised: I’d had four months off.

You’re not going to get away with that.

“I just didn’t have that final sprint in me.

But I sat there afterwards and thought: ‘Kurt would definitely swap that win for a gold medal in London, and I got four of them that are never going to be taken away from me.’

“It’s always goIng to be tough to match 2012 – not only the medals, but the emotIons”

David Weir was speaking on behalf of the BMW Performance Academy, a bespoke development programme for England Rugby’s elite young players. BMW is helping to support player development through a mentoring programme with London 2012 athletes

[Though Fearnley does have three Paralympic golds, from 2004 and 2008.] I had a week off afterwards to sulk for a bit, and then it drove me on a bit more. You need to lose to win, you know? A loss does you good, sometimes.”

Weir’s fifth place might have given his motivation a boost, but it wasn’t enough to get him on a plane to Lyon, where the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships have been taking place this week. “For me, it was too much too soon,” he says of the competition that saw him win three gold medals in 2011.

“It was too much pressure and too much expectation. I could probably have gone and just done the marathon at the end, but that’s not me. If I’m there, I want to do what I did at the Games. Not competing there just takes the pressure off me a bit for a year, and means I can concentrate on getting ready for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.”

At the Olympic Stadium on Sunday, Weir is racing in a one-mile exhibition race that gives the crowd a chance to reprise their Weirwolf calls of one year ago. With his mind not yet made up over whether the Rio Paralympics in 2016 is a Games too far, it will also, we hope, provide the man himself with a reminder of the winning feeling that started when he crossed the line for his first gold in London on September 3 2012 – and stayed with him to the end of the marathon six days later.

“It’s always going to be tough to match London 2012 – not only the medals, but the emotions and the experience of the whole thing,” he reflects. “At the moment I have a two-year plan – I’d like to do the Commonwealths and race for England.

After that, we’ll see if I can get motivated for another two years.”

Sarah Shephard @sarahsportmag | July 26 2013 | 29

Adrian Dennis/AFP/GettyImages, Action Images/Jason Cairnduff

back on track

Anniversary Games

EntEr thE Bolt Don’t miss Women’s 400m hurdles, Friday 8.04pm British 400m hurdles champion Perri Shakes-Drayton is up against Olympic bronze-medallist Zuzana Hejnova.

W

ith the rotten aftertaste from Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell’s positive drugs tests lingering, Usain Bolt’s return to the Olympic Stadium for this weekend’s Anniversary Games could not come at a better time. Despite the fact the triple Olympic champ has been way below par so far this season, he remains the best entertainment the sport has to offer – perhaps even better now for the fact that he’s no longer the unbeatable behemoth of the past few seasons.

Which brings us to Britain’s James Dasaolu (right), who will find himself lining up against Bolt on Friday night just a few weeks after running the 100m in a breakthrough 9.91s in Birmingham. That time saw the 25-year-old become the second-fastest Brit in history (behind Linford Christie’s 9.87s in 1993) and one of the fastest men in the world this year; three-hundredths of a second quicker than Bolt himself has managed in 2013. A repeat performance in the stadium where he was left disappointed with his semi-final exit at London 2012 would do nicely, with the World Championships just weeks away.

30 | July 26 2013 |

The Diamond League event covers Friday and Saturday, and features star names including Mo Farah, who is fresh from running a blistering 1,500m in Monaco. His time of 3:28.81 was quick enough to break Steve Cram’s 28-year-old 1,500m British record and earn the double Olympic champion a European record – not too shabby for a man who won gold at 5,000m and 10,000m last summer.

Sunday’s action sees the focus shift to the Paralympians who lit up the stadium so spectacularly last summer. David Weir (who’s interviewed on the previous page), Jonnie Peacock, Hannah Cockroft and Richard Whitehead will star in the one-off IPC International Challenge event, for which 60,000 tickets were snapped up within 24 hours of going on sale.

The drugs cheats might have cast a dirty great shadow over athletics, but this weekend is an opportunity for the sport to remind the world that the genuine athletes are still out there. And that theirs is a show well worth watching.

it’s on Friday BBC Two 7.30pm saturday BBC one 1.30pm sunday Channel 4 3pm

Men’s 100m , Friday 9.48pm Usain Bolt and James Dasaolu are joined

by Christophe Lemaitre, Nesta Carter, Kim Collins and Dwain Chambers.

Women’s 100m hurdles, Saturday 2.11pm If she’s fit, Jessica Ennis-Hill will take on fellow Brit Tiffany Porter, as well as Sally Pearson, Dawn Harper-Nelson and Kellie Wells – a trio otherwise known as the Olympic gold, silver and bronze-medallists.

Men’s 3,000m, Saturday 4.32pm Mo Farah races a distance he’s more familiar with on a track he planted more than one kiss on 12 months ago.

Men’s 4x100m, Saturday 4.50pm Bolt’s back in front of his adoring fans as part of a Racers Track Club team that will be tough to beat.

Men’s T43/44 100m, Sunday 5.01pm Jonnie Peacock takes on a strong field including Brazil’s Alan Oliveira, who smashed the T43 200m world record at the World Championships last weekend.

Men’s T54 mile, Sunday 5.14pm The Weirwolf gets the honour of closing the weekend’s action with what should be another win on a track on which he’s never been beaten.

Michael Steele/Getty Images, Ian Walton/Getty Images

There’s only one man who can save athletics now: with the sport reeling from a series of positive drugs tests, the imperious Usain Bolt returns to the scene of his 2012 Olympic triumphs for this weekend’s Anniversary Games

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Ashes cloud

England and Australia have had two compelling Tests, but dark skies could yet threaten the success of this double-Ashes year

T

he nail-biting Ashes summers of 2005 and 2009 had more in common than just their end result of a 2-1 win for England. Both engrossed the public and saw the country’s traditional summer sport post a cheeky shot across the bows of its more popular winter counterpart, football. Numerous fans who enjoy both could be overheard bemoaning that August’s start of the footy season had come too soon: we were all still absorbed in the cricket.

The first two Tests of this series have been mesmerising, eventful and hugely popular, but something is rotten in the state of Ashes cricket.

As close as the first Test at Trent Bridge proved to be, the gap in quality between the two teams looked increasingly wide at Lord’s. If England take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series at Old Trafford

next week, the football season may find its start perfectly coincides with the end of the summer Ashes as a competitive series.

Of course, England cricket supporters who can remember the 1990s (or, indeed, just as far back as 2007) can point out that Australian fans probably weren’t wringing their hands in worry when their side were putting an aggressively baggy green boot on the England team’s throat. Aiming for 5-0 victories and leaving the opposition scratching around for consolation wins in dead-rubber Tests seemed a way of life. The difference is that the defeated side usually had at least 18 months in which to lick their wounds and rebuild. This summer’s Ashes is set to finish on August 25, however, before it all begins again down under on November 21, just 88 days later. If Australia fail to compete for the last

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32 | July 26 2013 |

The Ashes

“English cricket fans would prefer to see a competitive Australian team than one just getting steamrollered every game” three matches of this summer, the Tests in Australia could prove less the second course in a feast of Ashes cricket, more an unwanted gorge that excites neither a jaded Australian public nor England fans missing the spice of fierce competition.

“English cricket fans would prefer to see a competitive Australian team than one just getting steamrollered every game,” claims Sky Sports pundit and England fast-bowling great Bob Willis.

“There was definitely a feeling of deflation when the Australian first innings capitulated at Lord’s. It had been fascinating watching England battle their way back to a respectable total from 28/3 in the first innings. Australia started reasonably well, but when they were bowled out for 128, people thought: ’Oh dear, is this going to be the the theme for the rest of the series?’ Unless Australia rejig their team, I fear it is.

“There is definitely a gulf in class in the two batting line-ups. Australia have one world-class player in Michael Clarke, and one very good player in Shane Watson. England probably have four worldclass batsmen and three very good ones. But I think Australia could improve their side by shifting around the batting order. I’d make Clarke bat at number three, I’d move Watson down into the middle order, to six, and I’d have either [David] Warner or [Phil] Hughes opening the batting.”

While we can expect changes to the Australian team before Old Trafford, not least because quick bowler James Pattinson is now out injured for the rest of the tour, Australian ESPN Cricinfo writer Jarrod Kimber points out that Australia’s chopping

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and changing hasn’t always worked. “They picked two guys who weren’t even in the original squad for Trent Bridge [Steve Smith and Ashton Agar] – and just before that, they changed their coach and their wicketkeeper. Before Lord’s, they made two changes, bringing in Ryan Harris and Usman Khawaja.

So there’s been a lot of reshuffling already. They keep searching for a ’magic formula’ – so it wouldn’t surprise me if they do it again, but I doubt it will help.

“You only need to look at Ashton Agar. They were looking for a 19-year-old saviour yet again. He plays one Test and they say: ’Look how good he is! He’s awesome!’ And actually he’s nowhere near good enough as a bowler at the moment. He replaced Nathan Lyon, who’d taken nine wickets in his last Test [against India in March]. He needs to come back into the side.”

England’s room for improvement A worry for those who want the next three Ashes Tests to be competitive is that England have won

without even firing on all cylinders. As Willis points out: “Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior haven’t yet batted as well as they can – so there’s four players there who have yet to really get going for England. The bowling has been excellent, but Stuart Broad is due a devastating spell with the ball. So I can only see England getting better in this series, rather than it levelling out.”

While England’s batting line-up has been overly reliant on Ian Bell and is yet to show its full quality, the best batsman on either side is also still to show his class. Many speculate that it’s just a matter of time before the Australian skipper lives up to his 50+ Test batting average, but Kimber is not so sure. ”Michael Clarke’s [often injured] back looks dreadful. The way he batted against Stuart Broad at Lord’s, there’s absolutely no doubt that his back is not working properly. He couldn’t get out of the way of the short ball – one hit him in the head [above] and it wasn’t an extraordinary ball, just a normal bouncer. He goes through peaks and troughs >

By players, for players

| 33

Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Lord’s deflation

The Ashes

Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

“It’s not like there’s any batting prodigies out there for Australia.

There’s no Jonny Bairstows or Joe Roots”

with his back, and he’s going to have to deal with that for the rest of his career. I doubt he’ll play much [Test cricket] beyond the Ashes in Australia, if at all.

It’s clearly giving him problems – I doubt we have any of his mammoth innings coming up.”

If results don’t improve for Australia – and the result is a 4-0 or 5-0 triumph for England this summer – then Kimber admits the Ashes down under could be a tricky sell.

“This is the problem,” he says. “If this was a really exciting, competitive series, then the next series would be awesome. But we’re at the complete opposite end to that – and, to be fair to the administrators [who arranged back-to-back Ashes], no one knew it was going to be so lop-sided so soon.”

While he admits new coach Darren Lehmann will benefit from having more time to mould a team of his own choosing rather than being thrown in at the deep end, Kimber sees the problems with Australia as deeper rooted than that. “Based on the length of contract he was given, Tim Lincoln should still be the Australia coach,” he says. “And if you don’t know who Tim Lincoln is, I don’t blame you: because he’s two coaches back now. That shows me that Cricket Australia have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they try to reshape the team for the series back in Australia and young players like Joe Burns and Jordan Silk are picked – 34 | July 26 2013 |

but it’s not like there’s any batting prodigies out there.

There’s no Jonny Bairstows or Joe Roots. The young players in Australia are a level just below them.”

All eyes on Old Trafford It may look bleak for Australia, but England will be wary not to rest on their laurels. After all, momentum looked to have shifted decisively in England’s favour after two Tests in the last Ashes series, before England’s batsmen were alarmingly bowled out of the game in losing the third Test on the WACA in Perth. Willis admits that England – even now – are capable of shooting themselves in the foot on occasion, while Kimber points out that “England haven’t actually batted particularly well in this series.

They had to struggle to get runs in both first innings.

Australia have good fast bowlers and someone like Ryan Harris can run through a team. That’s what they’re going to need. If Shane Watson just believes in himself or if Michael Clarke’s back gets better, an Australian win can happen.”

Willis is also optimistic, both for Australian chances in home territory and for the continuing popularity of Ashes cricket. “Australia will certainly bowl and bat better in their own conditions,” he says.

“They could be a danger. Plus, of course, just 18 months after the Aussie series finishes, they’re back here again in 2015. So three Ashes series, 15 Ashes

Test matches in two years – but I don’t think there will be overkill. There may be some desertion from Aussie cricket fans if they’re getting hammered at home, but overall the traditions of the contest will ensure crowds are good both home and away.”

Before we get there, however, we have Old Trafford next Thursday – and while it’s likely to be another dry, abrasive surface rather than the springboard pitch of the WACA, 10 days of recuperation away from Test cricket will aid Australia’s dangerous fast bowlers. Whisper it quietly, but there might be a few England cricket fans who care about the health of the Test version of the game hoping for a fully competitive match.

Another one-sided home victory and England will, much as Steve Waugh’s side did in the 1990s, be forced to look away from their oldest rival and to India and South Africa in order to find a meaningful challenge – and that really would be a crying shame.

No sniggering at the back, please – we’re being at least semi-serious.

Alex Reid @otheralexreid Only with Sky Sports can you watch 116 live Barclays Premier League matches, the Ashes and Formula 1 in HD and on mobile and tablet devices. Jarrod Kimber is working on a documentary film about the death of Test cricket, Death of a Gentleman. Visit deathofagentlemanfilm.com

Michael Jamieson

Silver lining

How important are this year’s World Championships for British swimming in the wake of last year’s disappointment in London?

“They’re as important as any, really. The post-Olympic year always sees a lot of changes and a lot of retirements. You kind of move on within the squad, so there’s a new group of swimmers coming through.

With Bill Furniss and Chris Spice taking over [new head coach and national performance director, respectively], they’ll be looking to build towards the next Olympics in Rio.” You probably came out best of all of Britain’s contenders in the pool in London, with that silver medal. How did that feel?

“It was a career-long goal. It’s something I’ve been working towards for 10 years – that’s a hell of a long time to be chasing one medal. But, you know, I love this lifestyle, I love being a professional athlete. I think my initial reaction was relief – I really hadn’t prepared for any other results, and you dread to think what my psychological state would have been if I hadn’t got that medal.”

36 | July 26 2013 |

Do you feel any added pressure as a result of winning that medal?

“I think I do, within myself. I want to be seen to lead by example, and I’ll be the first to hold my hands up if I don’t get the results I’m looking for.”

The 2014 Commonwealth Games are in Glasgow, your hometown. Will you be in a unique position of being under more scrutiny next year than last?

“Yes, I think it will be more next year. The Scots are obviously a pretty small but very proud nation, and it’s not often as athletes that we get a chance to represent our home nation – so it’s a real special occasion. It’s just a few miles from home for me – as close to home as it gets – and after finishing second at the last Commonwealth Games in Delhi I’m keen to get on the podium again... and hope to go one better.”

Much like another Scottish sportsman, you moved abroad at a young age for training. Was going to live in Paris a difficult decision?

“It was a big decision – but for me it was just part of the process of striving towards an Olympic medal.

In my mind it wasn’t a tough decision – I thought the programme that was going to be in place over there would give me the best opportunity to improve. It was a no-brainer, really. It was quite good fun to start to learn French – I wasn’t great, but I knew enough to get by. It was just some real good life experience.

I wasn’t on any funding at the time, so I was relying on my parents to fund it, which put them under a hell of a lot of stress. But, you know, I kind of got the results that I was looking for in the end, so it proved worthwhile.”

What’s the biggest sacrifice you’ve had to make to pursue your swimming career?

“I think over the years it’s relationships. You try to maintain contact with friends, but no one really understands the choices you have to make to be successful as an athlete. I think you have to be willing to make that sacrifice, and it’s obviously an unfortunate one, but I would do it again if I could get these results again. You have such a short shelf life as an athlete – I’ve got maybe four years left, so you really have to make the most of that. For the rest of my career I’ve got a goal as big as London every season, and that starts with the World Championships.”

Amit Katwala @amitkatwala Michael Jamieson is fronting the Speedo Swim Fit campaign

Clive Rose/Getty Images

Michael Jamieson’s 200m breaststroke silver was the high point of British Swimming’s London Games. Now he wants to go one better at this week’s World Aquatics Championships

7 Days OUR PICK OF THE ACTION FROM THE SPORTING WEEK AHEAD

JUL 26-AUG 1 HIGHLIGHTS » Formula 1: Hungarian GP, Romain Grosjean » p42 » Swimming: FINA World Championships »p44 » Rugby League: London Broncos v Wigan Warriors » p44 » Football: Borussia Dortmund v Bayern Munich » p44 » Golf: Senior British Open » p45

Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images

WEDNESDAY HORSE RACING | QIPCO SUSSEX STAKES | GOODWOOD | CHANNEL 4 3.05PM

Duel in the sun One of horse racing's most iconic social occasions

the bunch from an intriguing week's racing is

If both turn up on top form once again next week,

Wednesday's Sussex Stakes.

we could be in for one of the clashes of the season.

For the second time in three years, the Group 1

On Saturday, meanwhile, the leading middle-

race over a mile is being billed as a 'Duel on the

distance horses in Europe converge on Ascot for the

Downs' between two top-class colts. The reality

King George Stakes (Channel 4, 3.50pm). In the

didn't quite justify the hype back in 2011, when

absence of antepost favourite St Nicholas Abbey,

the mighty Frankel ran all over the much-vaunted

who suffered a career-ending injury on Tuesday,

Canford Cliffs, but this year's contest promises to be

French raider Cirrus des Aigles leads the market –

a cracker between two three-year-olds who have

but he has something to prove after one poor run

previous: Dawn Approach and Toronado.

this season, so the value may lie elsewhere. Step

The former has come out on top in both meetings

forward the talented three-year-old Hillstar, who

breaks from the stalls on Tuesday, as the five-day

this season, in the 2000 Guineas and at Royal Ascot

trainer Sir Michael Stoute added to the field on

Glorious Goodwood meeting returns for another

(above) – but Toronado came within a short head of

Monday at a cost of £75,000. Owner Sir Evelyn de

year. Pimm's and one-week-a-year linen suits will

reversing the form in that encounter, and jockey

Rothschild doesn't sound like a man short of a few

dominate off the track, but there is some serious

Richard Hughes is convinced he would have done so

bob, but Stoute doesn't mess about and his horse,

sport to look forward to on it as well – and the pick of

without the interference he suffered in a messy race.

crucially, has winning form over course and distance.

40 | July 26 2013 |

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

7 Days SUNDAY FORMULA 1 | HUngARiAn gRAnd PRix | HUngARORing, BUdAPEST | Sky SPORTS F1 1PM

Turning a corner? translated into improvements on the circuit.

“People like to speak, they like to find

So far this season he has scored just 41 points

things to criticise,” he says. “I wasn’t happy

– 20 fewer than at the same stage last year –

with myself, but it wasn’t like it was turn one

and while third last time out hints at a turning

where I’ve tried something. Criticism is part

tide, 2013 has been plagued with frustrations.

of the game. One day you’re a zero, the next

“I think the picture we are showing today

day you’re a hero. It goes up and down, and I

is not exactly the truth,” he says. “We started

really don’t read much about all those things.

A reputation is a hard thing to shake in sport

the year and struggled a bit with something

I’m the first one to know what I did right and

– just ask Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.

that was not suiting me well. If you look at the

what I did wrong, and that’s what counts

The Frenchman heads into the Hungarian

results, it’s simply not as good as we could

for me. If I can improve from there, then that’s

Grand Prix off the back of an impressive

have been – but I think there’s plenty of

what’s important.”

podium finish in Germany, but for all of his

positives with what’s going on, and that’s

progress in recent weeks he is still trying to

motivating us to keep working.”

lose his label as a reckless driver. That tag

Grosjean’s frustrations have been

was not unfairly handed to him, either, after

Grosjean is currently on a probationary contract with Lotus, which is reviewed every three races by team principal Eric Boullier.

compounded by comments from other

But while his relationships with other drivers

he caused a five-car pile-up in Belgium 12

Over the top:

drivers about his erratic style, ranging from

are strained to the point of breaking, he has

months ago – it was the seventh time in

Grosjean’s car (left)

Mark Webber labelling him as a “first-lap

a comrade in Boullier.

12 races that he had been involved in a

clips Lewis Hamilton’s

nutcase” to Daniel Ricciardo branding him

first-lap crash.

before launching over

“an idiot” after the two collided in the latter

to have a very good relationship with your

the top of Fernando

stages of the Monaco Grand Prix.

manager, with the team and with everyone,”

“It was so harsh that it was almost not real,” he says when recounting the first-lap

Alonso’s (right, in mid

incident and subsequent one-race ban

air) in Spa last year

So what does Grosjean himself make of the criticisms heading his way?

“We speak very often, and it’s important

Grosjean says.

While the rest of the field were calling

handed down by the FIA. “It was hard for

for his head last year, it was his compatriot

me [to accept] and not fun, but it’s about

who defended him, offering support for

the things you learn from it.”

the 27-year-old. And while his showing a

Grosjean sought guidance from a sports

fortnight ago is some vindication for

psychologist to tackle his first-lap nerves –

Boullier’s decision to stick by him, Grosjean

a move he insists has helped him both on and

knows that he has to change to prove his

off the track. “The weakness would be to

worth in F1.

hide it, to hide yourself and not see anyone,”

“I want to go into the future with Lotus and

he explains. “For me it’s being intelligent,

be world champion with them one day. And

because you can improve yourself. If you look

we are building to it. I hope so – I dream.”

at the data after qualifying or practice to

Simon Knights @SimonKnights

improve yourself [on the track] and you can do the same by seeing someone, then why

Suremen is an official partner of the Lotus

not do it?”

F1® Team. It has launched the new Lotus F1®

While Grosjean has done his utmost to improve himself, his new attitude is yet to be 42 | July 26 2013 |

Team Special Edition deodorant range.

Visit suremen.co.uk Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

LAT Photographic, Paul Gilham/Getty Images, Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix could prove pivotal in Romain Grosjean’s F1 future, but the under-fire Frenchman says he is learning from his mistakes

7 Days Sunday > sWimming | Fina WoRLd Championships | paLau sant JoRdi, baRCeLona | bRitish euRospoRt 9am

Saturday Rugby League | ChaLLenge Cup: London bRonCos v Wigan WaRRioRs | Leigh spoRts ViLLage | bbC tWo 5pm

Leaving London Britain's first World

of the athletes' final training

Championships in the post-

camps. In the past, trials had been

Rebecca Adlington era sees the

held months ahead, meaning that

nation's swimmers attempt to draw

those selected weren't always the

a thick line beneath what was a

form horses come the main event.

thoroughly deflating Olympics.

In Barcelona, Furniss is promising

Adlington's pair of bronze

a team that is “focused around

medals in London was

Olympic events and current form...

accompanied by an impressive

I believe this tighter focus will give

silver for Michael Jamieson in

us every chance to succeed”.

the 200m breaststroke (he's

Jamieson aside, medal hopes

interviewed back on page 36). But

will rest with Hannah Miley (below),

the rest of the British team failed to

who won gold at the Short Course

deliver, leaving them short of UK

World Championships in Istanbul

Sport's target of between five and

last year, but could manage only

seven medals.

fifth in the 400m individual medley

It provoked a rethink all round,

in London, and Fran Halsall, who

with Adlington's coach Bill Furniss

reached four finals (from five

called in to replace Dennis Pursley

events) last summer, but could

as head coach at British Swimming,

come no closer to a medal than

his stated aim being to “convert

two fifth-placed finishes.

finalists into medallists”.

Barcelona is where the journey

One of the differences he

to Rio begins – and, in the case of

implemented was to hold the

British Swimming, where London

British trials for the World

2012 hopefully gets left

Championships immediately ahead

far behind.

Saturday FootbaLL | dFL-supeRCup: boRussia doRtmund v bayeRn muniCh | WestFaLLenstadion, doRtmund | espn 7.30pm Clive Rose/Getty Images, Action Images/Andrew Couldridge/Livepic, Sascha Steinbach/Bongarts/Getty Images, Ian Walton/Getty Images

European royalty It's a sign of the growing strength

however – he looked set for a move

of the Bundesliga that their

to Manchester United until Pep

equivalent of the Community

swooped in to capture him.

Shield is a repeat of the

meanwhile, have rebuilt their

while ours includes Wigan.

ransacked squad with the coveted

So, two months after Bayern

Armenian midfielder Henrikh

Munich's 2-1 win at Wembley,

Mkhitaryan (also out injured for

they visit Borussia Dortmund's

the start of the season) and pacy

yellow wall for what will be a first

French forward Pierre-Emerick

competitive game in charge for

Aubameyang. Games between

former Barcelona head coach Pep

these two are always exciting,

Guardiola (right). Mario Gotze's

cerebral affairs, and this should

hamstring stopped him from

be no exception.

playing for Dortmund in that final,

44 | July 26 2013 |

Dortmund and Jurgen Klopp,

Champions League final,

Elsewhere, the Women's Euro

and the same injury will likely

2013 draws to a close on Sunday

prevent him facing his former club

(BBC Two, 3pm). The semi finals

now that he's a Bayern employee.

were yet to be played as we went

Thiago Alcântara will be available

to press, so we can't tell you

for the Bundesliga champions,

much more than that.

Mission impossible?

The London Broncos go into the Tetley’s Challenge

So, do they have a chance of getting to Wembley?

Cup semi final against Wigan on Saturday looking

“You’ve always got a chance,” says Martin Offiah,

to create one of the biggest shocks since Sheffield

the Hackney-born wing who played in four

Eagles beat the same opponents in the 1998 final.

Challenge Cup finals for Wigan and featured for the

If form is anything to go by, then the Warriors

Broncos in their sole appearance in the final in 1999.

should make short work of the Super League's

“The only way you’re going to win this game is on

bottom club. However, a number of key players,

emotion – but it can happen. This is when you find

including Sam Tomkins and Sean O’Loughlin,

out about yourself. Have you been doing the right

missed their defeat at St Helens on Monday, and

pre-season training? Are you really fit? If you’re not,

there could be more casualties following that

you’re going to be found out; but if you are, you’ve

bruising encounter. And the Broncos have a taste

got a chance.”

for giant-killing already this season, having

In the other semi final, cup holders Warrington,

dumped the Bradford Bulls out in the fourth

who have appeared in three of the last four finals,

round (pictured).

play Hull FC on Sunday (BBC Two, 6pm).

The Challenge Cup final at Wembley is one of the great sporting events of the British summer

Reader offer

– and you can be at this year's final, on Saturday August 24, for half price! We have teamed up with the RFL to offer up to 250 tickets in the upper tier, worth £41, for just £20.50 each.

To take advantage of this offer, simply visit rugbyleaguetickets.co.uk, select an upper tier block containing £41 seats and enter the promotional code SPORTMAG. Alternatively, call on 0844 856 1113.

Tickets limited to £41 seats in Wembley’s upper tier. Blocks with £41 seats must be selected when purchasing. Offer ends 1pm on Monday July 29.

Friday > goLF | senioR bRitish open | RoyaL biRkdaLe | sky spoRts 1 11.30am

Monty targets old Major After the thrills of the

US so far, finishing 32nd

final day of the Open

and ninth, and will be

Championship at Muirfield

desperate to do what he

last Sunday, this weekend

never could on the regular

sees the old-timers do

tour – namely, land one of

their thing at the Senior

the big ones.

British Open.

Royal Birkdale –

The standard among the over-50s gets better

probably, after Muirfield,

every year, though, and

the next best course on the

defending champion Fred

Open rota – is the venue,

Couples will be the man to

and there will be plenty of

beat. He finished a very

familiar (old) faces in the

creditable 32nd at Muirfield

event, which got under

last weekend, closing with

way yesterday.

a fine level-par 71. He has

Colin Montgomerie

form at Birkdale too, having

(left), who turned 50 last

finished third there behind

month, makes his third

Ian Baker-Finch in the 1991

start as a senior. He has

Open. Fond memories, if he

played two Majors in the

can recall that far back.

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand | 45

EXtRa tiME Making the most of your time and money

P54 Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

Make them believe you’re everywhere

Gadgets

On the red line the HtC One is arguably the prettiest phone to hit pockets in the past year, and it’s

now available in sensual ‘Glamour Red’. Chris de Burgh will be beside himself with excitement.

On a a slightly more topical note, it runs HTC’s own take on the Android operating system, and still includes the same lovely machined aluminium casing as its silver brethren, with the same quad-core processor and full HD 4.7-inch screen.

Free from £31/month | Only at phones4u.co.uk

Panasonic KX-PRW120

Only one household object goes missing more regularly than your keys – and that’s the landline handset, so this home phone’s optional ability to locate your keys is a little perplexing. It also has Smartphone Connect, so you can make calls from your mobile via the landline or vice versa. £100 | Mid-August from currys.co.uk 46 | July 26 2013 |

Beats by Dr Dre Neon Mixr

The famous headphones have been given a colour makeover by the good doctor, perhaps inspired by the lollipops he hands out to children who visit his surgery on the village green. They’re now available in a host of highlighter shades, from pink to the green featured here. Just what the doctor ordered. £220 | beatsbydre.com

Lytro

The world’s first consumer ‘light-field’ camera arrives in the UK. Lytro’s special sensor lets it capture the direction light came from as well as its colour and intensity, which means you can refocus pictures after you’ve taken them, or change the perspective. The effect is mind-boggling. Truly revolutionary. £400 | From August at johnlewis.co.uk Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

UPGRADE YOUR U O S SOUND O U beats neon mixr £219 .99

£219.99

EXCLUSIVE COLOUR /hmv

Subject to availability, while stocks last

@hmvtweets

we are entertainment

ET

Kit

TRi HaRD WiTH a vEnGEancE

It’s the Virgin Active London Triathlon this weekend. You’re almost certainly too late to enter if you haven’t already, but here’s all you need for next time

Giant Defy 5 (2013)

Giant’s boast that the Defy 5 “redefines the performance possibilities of an entry-level road bike” because it “climbs, corners and sprints better than bikes costing thousands more” is a big one – but it stands up, with its premium lightweight aluminium frame and Shimano 2300 eight-speed shifting.

That frame should also give you the longevity to enjoy a few upgrades – and it’s guaranteed not to be as flimsy as its carbon counterparts you’ll see ridden by your competition. And should you not want to risk your own trusted steed in the race itself, triuk.com will be kind enough to let you hire one. £499 | triuk.com

Speedo Tri Elite FullSleeved Wetsuit

Built for speed, buoyancy and thermal protection, the Tri Elite is constructed from flexible and light Y39 neoprene and has stitch-free seams for comfort and a hydrodynamic profile.

Its Vortex pockets expand during the catch phase of your stroke, pushing you forward. £450 | store.speedo.co.uk 48 | July 26 2013 |

Skechers GOrun 2

The next generation of serious minimal running shoe, say Skechers, designed for speed with innovative performance technologies to promote a midfoot strike. Works as a great transitional shoe to help foster a barefoot running experience.

Also comes in grey/green, black/grey and blue. £71 | skechers.co.uk

Maxifuel Recovermax

If it’s good enough for the Brownlee brothers – who notched up another 1-2 last week in Hamburg – it’s good enough for you. Recovermax is a carbohydrate and protein sports-recovery drink that helps muscles repair and recover after intense exercise. Available in orange or strawberry flavour. £29.99, 750g | maxishop.com

Bose SiE2 Sport Headphones

Specifically engineered for exercise as well as being sweat and weather-resistant, the SIE2s stay comfortably in place and deliver tonally balanced audio with crisp highs and deep low notes – much like our breathing.

They also come with a Reebok armband to hold your device. £104.95 | bose.co.uk

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

Neither should anyone’s son.

Or Grandad. No cousins or nephews. Not the boys from the rugby club or the lads from the pub. No boyfriends or husbands or father-in-laws. Not the chap from the chip shop or the noisy lads at the back of the bus. Not your best mate. Not a single stranger.

No one whatsoever.

No one should face cancer alone.

With your support, no one will.

Text DAD to 70550 and donate £5 today.

Texts cost £5 plus your network charge. We receive 94p of every £1 donated in this way. Obtain bill payer’s permission first.

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). MAC14175_07_13

ET

Grooming

naME on ThE TRoPhy

Not yours – Paco Rabanne’s. Get your hands on his new eau de toilette, however, and Paco will be your wingman any time

The new fragrance

Invictus, Paco Rabanne

Meaning ‘unconquerable’ in Latin, Invictus is also a Victorian poem by William Ernest Henley, who contracted tuberculosis of the bone as a teenager and had his leg amputated below the knee. He was moved to write it during his recovery, ending with the lines: “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” PR is confident you too can master your own fate with a composition of marine accord, grapefruit zest and bay leaf, giving way to a woody amber accord, guaiac wood and patchouli. “Addictive yet ultra-masculine,” says PR. £57 for 100ml | boots.com from Monday

Shower, shampoo, shave Wingman 3-in-1

Designed so that the maverick in you can carry his three essentials in one bottle, Wingman’s formula cleanses like an invigorating shower gel and shampoo as well as providing a moisturising aloe vera edge to deliver a close shave. It comes in three flavours: Fuel (wood, spice and, er, aviation fuel), Charge (grapefruit, lemon, mandarin and coconut) and Boom (spearmint and peppermint). Now go embarrass yourself with Goose. £3.49 each for 250ml | tesco.com 50 | July 26 2013 |

Travel light, hold firm Fish Minis

The Fish Salon in Soho has transformed three of its best-selling styling products into handy mini-sized versions, perfect for travel or trial. It’s crammed the Fishfingers Shape Defining Wax, Fishshape Texturising Cream and Stonefish Matt Texturising Clay into pocket-sized pots so you can mould, sculpt, texturise, define and shape your hair in pretty much any situation, whenever your fragile ego demands. £2.99 each for 25ml | Boots stores nationwide Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

iPad edition on Newsstand now

P

resenter Charlie Webster doesn’t just talk the talk on Sky Sports News. She walks the walk, too.

Or, in this case, tries the tri – with this weekend’s Virgin Active London Triathlon.

“I’ve never been a triathlete before, I’ve always been a runner,” she explains. “But I’ve had some bad injury problems with my hip over the past year [her sacroiliac joint dislocates thanks to hypermobility through her hips], so I was forced to take up swimming.

“But I couldn’t swim a length. So if you put me in a swimming race, I’d probably have a bit of a paddy, then do doggy paddle. So I learned to swim properly three or four months ago.” Not only that, but Webster also only recently rode a road bike for the first time.

“Because of my running ability, I was actually good at the bike,” she says. “But I still don’t have a bike, so if anyone wants to help me, I’d be very grateful.”

Webster is, as you’ve probably guessed, fiercely competitive. She took on the VO2 max machine at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute in Loughborough last week and “died”, bagging an elite score for her anaerobic threshold, all in the name of Lynx’s competition to send one person into space. Sport explains astronauts who wash their hair in space end up drinking the same water they use to do so, via a water-processing plant. What if they used Lynx?

“Maybe the tiny particles would act like a love potion,” Webster speculates. Maybe. But in her case, for that same effect, we’re not sure the contestants need drink anything at all.

Charlie Webster presented the last stage of the Lynx Space Academy – a competition to send one person to space. Follow her on Twitter @CharlieCW

Space cadet

Extra time Charlie Webster

52 | July 26 2013 | Christopher Bissell

| 53

eT

Games In association with

SAInTS AnD SInneRS

Save America (and, therefore, the world) from terrorist attacks or extraterrestrial invasion – and help “take our independence back from the anal-probing overlords that oppress us”

PS3, Xbox, PC, Wii U

PS3, Xbox, PC

Saints Row IV

Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Developed with a very clear goal in mind: to merge the pure stealth of the original Splinter Cell games with the fast-paced action of the most recent outing, Conviction. And it promises to succeed.

The single-player campaign is as varied as it is action-packed, plus the gadgetry at your disposal puts Bond’s toys to shame. You’re rewarded with perks depending on how you play the game – so if

PS3, Xbox, PC

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, this third-person tactical shooter takes place in an alternate reality where you’ll find yourself leading teams against aliens that have invaded the US. Outnumbered and outgunned, you’ll need a steady trigger finger and a good strategic mind to emerge victorious.

Released August 23 54 | July 26 2013 |

The series’ openworld playground is a bit like a science fiction version of Grand Theft Auto, only with cruder jokes and weapons such as the alien anal probe. In fact, its humour is so low-brow it wallows in the gutter. Case in point: this latest instalment has been refused classification in Australia because of the aforementioned weapon. But if you can get past that, Saints Row IV is a goofy romp in which fun – not story or logic – is king. It looks like more of an upgrade to Saints Row: The Third rather than a proper sequel in its own right, but any game in which you can “administer the biggest smackdown in the history of mankind” gets our vote.

Released August 23

you prefer stealth over running and gunning, you’ll unlock gadgets that make you the perfect silent killer; opt for brute force and you’re rewarded with more powerful weapons.

The much-loved Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer mode returns, too, with subtle tweaks to the core gameplay that – combined with an all-new four-versus-four Blacklist mode – help make this the quintessential Splinter Cell experience.

Released August 23

PS3, Xbox, PC

Lost Planet 3

What used to be an ambitious but underachieving shooter series with giant robots has become a much stronger action game – with even more giant robots. The cover-based shooting is familiar, sure, but the mech combat is improved.

It’s first-person, more involving, and makes you feel like a super-powered robo-god.

Released August 30

Wii U

The Wonderful 101

PS3, Xbox, PC, Wii, 3DS

This eccentric Wii U exclusive puts at your disposal a team of superheroes who team up to form enormous weapons with which to fend off alien invaders.

Your aim is to find and recruit helpless citizens to your army of heroes. Fast, fun and a truly memorable blast thanks to its mix of unique gameplay and quirky humour.

Released August 23

Disney Infinity

First impressions pitch this as a terrifyingly efficient moneyspinner and little else, but while there’s an onus on collecting figures that can be synthesised and used in the game – much like Skylanders – don’t write it off as one for the kids just yet.

Creative, playful and preserves the soul of the characters and places it brings to life.

Released August 20

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

Best Dad in the World? You will be with the new Fiat 500L Trekking. Arm your kids with the perfect playground verbal ammunition when you scoop them and all their mates up. This 5-seater cruiser has a range of features including beefy 17" diamond-finished alloy wheels with bold arches, tinted windows, City Brake Control, plus Traction+ for when the great British summer goes south.

Dad 1. The Rest 0. End of.

fiat.co.uk Fiat, the car brand with the lowest average CO2 emissions in Europe^. Fuel consumption figures for the Fiat 500L Trekking range in mpg (l/100km): Urban 33.6 (8.4) – 60.1 (4.7); Extra Urban 53.3 (5.3) – 74.3 (3.8); Combined 44.1 (6.4) – 67.3 (4.2). CO2 emissions 149 – 109 g/km. Fuel consumption and CO2 figures based on standard EU tests for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results.^Source: JATO Dynamics. Based on volume-weighted average CO2 emissions (g/km) of the best selling brands in Europe, full year 2012.