7 h. ago Athletics intent on joining sport’s Goliaths but knows it has long way to go | Sean Ingle

Jon Ridgeon is overseeing World Athletics’ reach for a younger audience but has to battle it out with football and F1It really is quite the scene. Midnight in Tokyo, Usain Bolt is DJing and the launch party for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships is in full swing. And then the World Athletics chief executive, Jon Ridgeon, walks up to me and says: “I read your recent Guardian column, and I thought it was very unfair.”Imagine Gary Lineker going in two-footed, having never picked up a yellow card in his career. This is the track and field equivalent. Ridgeon, a former world silver medallist over the 110m hurdles, is one of the smartest and most reasonable people in sport. He is saying, in a polite way, that he is really rather annoyed. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago ‘Your column was very unfair’: what happened when I met World Athletics | Sean Ingle

John Ridgeon believes I was downbeat about state of his sport. CEO may have a point so we thrashed out our differencesIt really is quite the scene. Midnight in Tokyo, Usain Bolt is DJing and the launch party for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships is in full swing. And then the World Athletics chief executive, Jon Ridgeon, walks up to me and says: “I read your recent Guardian column, and I thought it was very unfair.”Imagine Gary Lineker going in two-footed, having never picked up a yellow card in his career. This is the track and field equivalent. Ridgeon, a former world silver medallist over the 110m hurdles, is one of the smartest and most reasonable people in sport. He is saying, in a polite way, that he is really rather annoyed. Continue reading...

Politics

26 h. ago I've spent ten years battling acne. It ruined my life. Then I met a leading  skin expert who told me what was really happening to my skin. Her routine has changed my life

It was when I felt a knot of dread in my stomach while planning a weekend away with friends that I knew I needed to do something about my skin.

Events

3 d. ago My cultural awakening: Thelma & Louise made me realise I was stuck in an unhappy marriage

One line from Ridley Scott’s classic movie was the shove I needed to walk out on my husband after years of his controlling behaviourIt was 1991, I was in my early 40s, living in the south of England and trapped in a marriage that had long since curdled into something quietly suffocating. My husband had become controlling, first with money, then with almost everything else: what I wore, who I saw, what I said. It crept up so slowly that I didn’t quite realise what was happening.We had met as students in the early 1970s, both from working-class, northern families and feeling slightly out of place at a university full of public school accents. We shared politics, music and a sense of being outsiders together. For years, life felt full of promise. When our first child arrived, I gave up my local government job to stay at home. That’s when the balance between us shifted. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago La Voix recalls what Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly said to her off air

Strictly Come Dancing star La Voix has shared what happened when she met with Tess Daly off air after making a series of brutal swipes about the host's outfits on the show

Politics

3 w. ago Moment pickpocket swipes woman's handbag inside Selfridges after she placed it on seat as she waited to be served

The shocking incident - which happened during the Met Police 's Christmas crackdown - took place on Oxford Street in central London last Saturday.

Politics

3 w. ago David Beckham's one King Charles condition he had to meet to finally be knighted

David Beckham has finally been knighted, after years of being snubbed in the New Year's Honours list - but it only happened after he met one crucial condition

Politics