2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg announces his retirement from racing
The German who clinched his maiden Formula 1 world championship this season in Abu Dhabi has announced his retirement from the sport.
The 31-year-old has had a decade-long wait and a mammoth 206 races before he could get his hands on his first ever world championship title.
He has matched the same feat as his father Keke Rosberg, did the same, winning the championship in 1982.
The announcement came as a surprise and shock to so many Formula 1 fans around the world and industry professionals, including his fellow drivers.
Hamilton who beat his teammate in the previous two seasons, to win back to back titles said ‘it is going to be strange and it will sad not to have him in the team next year’.
Rosberg’s retirement leaves Mercedes with a driver absent for next season. Team boss Toto Wolff said the announcement took him ‘completely by surprise’.
There has already been speculation as to who could replace Rosberg next season, with an especially amusing exchange that occurred on Twitter between Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and the Mercedes F1 account.
BBC Sports Personality Of The Year contenders
The 16-athelete shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year (SPOTY) has been revealed.
The prestigious award ceremony will take place in Genting Arena, Birmingham on the 18th of December.
Leicester City’s very own Jamie Vardy is notably up for the main award of the night.
A total of eight awards will be handed out on the eight including, Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, Team of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Personality of the Year Coach Award, Unsung Hero Award and the Young Sports Personality of the Year.
Profiles of each contender for the main award of the night can be found on the BBC Sport website.
The full list reads as follows:
• Nicola Adams – Boxing
• Gareth Bale – Football
• Alistair Brownlee – Triathlon
• Sophie Christiansen – Equestrian
• Kadeena Cox – Athletics/Cycling
• Mo Farah – Athletics
• Jason Kenny – Cycling
• Laura Kenny – Cycling
• Andy Murray – Tennis
• Adam Peaty – Swimming
• Kate Richardson-Walsh – Hockey
• Nick Skelton – Equestrian
• Dame Sarah Storey – Cycling
• Jamie Vardy – Football
• Max Whitlock – Gymnastics
• Danny Willett – Golf
Connor McGregor is officially granted a boxing licence from the state of California
Speculations of a possible fight between retired boxer Floyd Mayweather and UFC fighter Conor McGregor have been reignited, after the Irishman, has been issued a boxing license by the Californian state athletics commission.
This will give McGregor the granted permission to allow him to box in the US state of California.
Mcgregor defeated Eddie Alvarez in November to gain the featherweight title. Although he’s since had to give up the title.
John Kavanagh, McGregor’s trainer has said he wouldn’t be surprised if there was to be a fight arranged between the Mayweather and McGregor.
However, Leonard Ellebe CEO of Mayweather Promotions has told ESPN that ‘it’s all a game’ from McGregor and a ‘calculated effort to gain more fans’.
He also stated that there is no chance that the fight could take place anyway as McGregor is still under contract with the UFC.
World of football grieves perished Chapecoense players and staff
The world of football was rocked by a plane crash in Medellín, Columbia which was carrying the Brazilian football team Chapecoense on Monday night.
They were on their way to play the first leg of the Sudamericana final match against Colombian side Atlético Nacional, who have since called for the Copa Sudamericana title to be given Chapecoense.
Only three players, Alan Luciano Ruschel, Jakson Ragnar Follmann and Zampier Neto were amongst the six survivors. Others who survived the tragedy included journalist, Rafael Valmorbida, and two crew members, Ximena Suárez and Erwin Timuri.
Gabriel, Arsenal’s Brazilian defender was visibly emotional as he sent an emotional tribute to the 71 people killed in the plane crash and in particular to his late friend Caio Júnior, the Chapecoense manager.
He said in a video message: ‘We have a message group from Brazil and I texted them to say “don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do for today. I say that because on my last birthday [Saturday] I felt this urge to talk to Caio Júnior and for some reason I left it for another day and then this tragedy happens. So, if you think you want to do something, just get out there and do it because we don’t know what tomorrow brings.’
Player across various clubs, in different leagues, have played their tributes to those 71 people who have been killed, with a minutes silence and black armbands to pay their respects.
Jessia Ennis-Hill will collect 2011 World Championship gold after Russian athlete is embroiled in doping
Jessia Ennis-Hill is set to claim gold for the 2011 world championships after Russian athlete Tatyana Chernova was stripped of the gold medal after being found implicit in doping during this time.
The 28-year-old was banned from athletics for two years in 2015 and removed from her results spanning for a couple of years up to the 14th of August 2011.
But the heptathlete will now have to give up her world title gold medal, which she won in South Korea, narrowly beating Jessica Ennis-Hill.
Ennis-Hill who announced her retirement from the sport in October exclaimed her joy of now being three-time world champion in an Instagram post saying: ‘However much it drove me on for what I was about to achieve at my first Olympics in London, in my heart, I just knew it was wrong. So happy to finally be receiving my gold medal.’
NSPCC football abuse helpline has 360 victims come forward
A hotline launched by charity NSPCC dedicated to football abuse has revealed that they received more than 860 calls in the first week since the hotline was opened.
NSPCC chief executive, Peter Wanless said that there has been a ‘staggering surge’ of the amount of calls made by people to get in touch.
The NSPCC has said that reports are alleged abuses are being recorded and investigated local to the area of when the alleged allegations took place.
Sixteen police forced in the UK are following up on allegations made of child sex abuse in football.
Within three days of the hotline opening the charity has made more three times the number of referrals to the police or children’s services, in comparison to the same amount of time after it opened a hotline during the scandal involving Jimmy Saville in 2012.
The football abuse hotline is open 24 hours a day on 0800 623 26 42.
Gordon Reid is set to end the year as wheelchair tennis world no.1
Gordon Reid will be one of three British tennis players to bow out of 2016 as world number one. He joins fellow scots and brothers Andy and Jamie Murray.
Reid who has already won the French Open and Wimbledon this year, beat Stephane Houdet in the semi-finals of the wheelchair tennis masters to cement his position.
He said: ‘It feels incredible to be world number one.
It has been the best year of my career and to come here in the last tournament of the year and take the number one spot off Stephane shows I have earned it’.
In addition to his grand slam titles won this year he has added a singles gold and a doubles silver to his tally, which he won at the Rio Olympics this summer.
Unfortunately the 25-year-old lost the final of the wheelchair tennis masters against the Belgian defending champion Joachim Gerard. But no doubt he will be happy about finishing the year at the top of the ranks.
