London: Manchester City are determined to usher in a new era for English football today by clinching their first title for 44 years as the curtain comes down on a thrilling Premier League campaign.

Four years after the serial under-achievers from the blue half of Manchester were bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, the club’s owners are poised to see the biggest return yet on their investment

Victory over Queens Park Rangers at Eastlands will — barring a miraculous scoreline for Manchester United at Sunderland — be enough to see Roberto Mancini’s side claim the league crown.

Yet City are determined to ensure that victory in this year’s league campaign is only a stepping stone to greater glory.

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London: Manchester City are determined to usher in a new era for English football today by clinching their first title for 44 years as the curtain comes down on a thrilling Premier League campaign.

Four years after the serial under-achievers from the blue half of Manchester were bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, the club’s owners are poised to see the biggest return yet on their investment

Victory over Queens Park Rangers at Eastlands will — barring a miraculous scoreline for Manchester United at Sunderland — be enough to see Roberto Mancini’s side claim the league crown.

Yet City are determined to ensure that victory in this year’s league campaign is only a stepping stone to greater glory.

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Philadelphia:The United States swept all six races against a World team in the Penn Relays at Franklin Field on Saturday in an ominous show of form ahead of the London Olympics.

The American track and field team have set the lofty goal of 30 medals this summer.

Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards-Ross, Walter Dix, Justin Gatlin, and Lashawn Merritt showed they want their share.

"London, here we come," Merritt said.

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Dubai: One thing that’s never been in shortage in this part of the world is golf courses, stunningly green despite the harsh topography. There’s even a links course at Yas with many of the holes running along the turquoise waters of a mangrove-lined bay. But there’s something about the one that’s opened at Meydan that has grabbed eyeballs. The brilliant new course known as The Track opened recently and is a unique pay-and-play golf course at the world-famous Dubai racecourse.

Developed by Meydan Golf and run by leading golf management company Troon Golf, The Track is nestled alongside Meydan racecourse, home of the Dubai World Cup.

Just a 10-minute drive out of the city, the facility makes the most of the natural contours and lakes in the area and is home to a variety of wildlife.

The Track, which is open from 6.30am, was designed by renowned golf course architect Peter Harradine, with every hole posing a unique challenge.

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London: Arsene Wenger has told Robin van Persie that his future must be finalised before the start of Euro 2012, with Arsenal hoping to persuade their captain to extend his contract within a week of the season ending.

Van Persie is due to join up with the Holland squad for the European Championship on May 17 and, with the Premier League season finishing four days earlier, Arsenal will make an immediate attempt to resolve the situation.

The club are ready to make Van Persie the highest paid player in their history but still regard their ‘Plan B’ as holding him to the final year of his contract, even though he could then leave for nothing next year.

Asked about Van Persie’s future, Wenger said: "That will be sorted at the end of the season." He clarified that he meant before Euro 2012, which begins on June 8.

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Dubai: Grandmaster Baadur Jobava of Georgia justified his top billing at the Dubai International Blitz Championship at the Dubai Chess Club beating six opponents and forcing draws with three others to win the tournament with 7-1/2 points after nine rounds.

Grandmasters Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia, Vladimir Baklan and Alexander Kovchan of Ukraine, and Avetik Grigoryan of Armenia were tied in second place with seven points apiece.

Players from 21 countries

A strong group of 84 players from 21 countries took part in the one-day competition, including 21 Grandmasters and 9 International Masters. At stake was a total of $4,000 (Dh14,689) in cash prizes.

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By Rivals.com staff, Special to SI.com

After another week of 2013 recruiting happenings, Rivals recaps the top storylines from each BCS conference.

Miami hosted a lengthy list of prospects throughout its spring practice, and last week may have been the Hurricanes’ strongest showing to date. Al Golden and Co. entertained top targets such as four-star wide receiver Jordan Cunningham and three-star defensive tackle Maquedius Bain (a very soft Florida State commit), both of whom seem very high on the ‘Canes.

Saturday’s spring finale also drew a number of high-profile visitors. Among them: Miami committed athlete Jayron Kearse, Miramar (Fla.) linebacker Jermaine Grace and Naples (Fla.) Barron Collier tight end Mike Heuerman, the top-ranked tight end in the state of Florida. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder currently lists LSU, Miami, Notre Dame and Ohio State among his leaders, with Alabama trying to break into the picture.

Miami has landed just one recruit in April (New Orleans (La.) Edna Karr tight end Standish Dobard) but many more could be on the way. Following a stellar 2012 showing, keep an eye on this program in weeks to come.

With the recent coaching instability at Pitt, the Panthers have scrambled to piece together their last two recruiting classes. Not surprisingly, that’s created several positional holes for Paul Chryst and staff to fill, the biggest coming on the offensive line: Dating back to 2011, the program has signed just four offensive line prospects, including Zenel Demhasaj, a JUCO transfer with just two years of eligibility.

Coming from a tradition of standout offensive linemen at Wisconsin, Chryst has quickly set his sights on bolstering his 2013 front. He’s already issued 14 verbal offers, but has been met with limited success. He’s reeled in just one commitment (from Chambersburg (Pa.) Area’s Aaron Reese, who declared on Saturday) and two of the top in-state linemen, Wexford (Pa.) North Allegheny’s Patrick Kluger and Philadelphia (Pa.) William Penn Charter’s Mike McGlinchey, have already pledged elsewhere.

Top priorities moving forward could be Belle Vernon’s (Pa.) Dorian Johnson and Hershey’s (Pa.) Andrew Nelson. Look for the staff to intensify its efforts.

Iowa got on the board with its first three commitments this month, becoming the ninth Big Ten program with at least one early 2013 verbal. They were three big ones: The first came from Indianapolis (Ind.) Pike’s David Kenney, an explosive pass-rusher ranked as the nation’s No. 8 weakside defensive end, the second came from Rock Island’s (Ill.) Derrick Willies, a three-star wide receiver whose stock is starting to soar, and the third came from Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech’s Delano Hill, a three-star safety who also held offers to Illinois and Syracuse.

The Hawkeyes are positioning themselves to hit the spring evaluation period with momentum, and are among the frontrunners to land West Des Moines (Iowa) Valley tight end Jon Wisnieski and Cleveland (Ohio) St. Edward safety Solomon Warfield. After a slow start, Kirk Ferentz and Co. are gaining steam — and securing another commitment before the end of April wouldn’t be surprising in the least.

Though Baylor assembled a commendable class in 2012 (No. 45 in the Rivals’ team rankings) many analysts expected it to be better following an incredibly strong season culminating in a Heisman Trophy for quarterback Robert Griffin III. However, that success has translated to 2013: After a sluggish start, the Bears now have six verbals, including one from Killeen (Texas) Shoemaker running back Johnny Jefferson, who flipped from Texas A&M.

Art Briles picked up his biggest pledge to date in Wylie (Texas) East four-star wideout Vequan Jones, a Rivals250 talent who had offers from every major conference but opted to stay close to home. Baylor remains in the running for several other of Texas’ top recruits and could use last season’s triumphs to land a fair share of them.

Colorado received some bad news last week, as it was revealed that junior wide receiver Paul Richardson will miss the 2012 season with an injured knee. However, coach Jon Embree is continuing his efforts on the recruiting trail. A number of talented prospects arrived to Boulder for the program’s junior day, including many from out of state: Santa Margarita’s (Calif.) Dane Crane, Riley Sorenson and Connor O’Brien were all in attendance.

But the most encouraging post-Richardson happening? The Buffaloes landed a blue-chip quarterback in Tacoma (Wash.) Bellarmine Prep’s Sefo Liufau. The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder threw for 2,253 yards and 23 touchdowns last year and could provide an instant spark under center. Colorado had a trying first season beneath Embree and could face an uphill battle again this year. But thanks to strong recruiting efforts, help could be on the horizon.

There’s still two weeks left in April, but Georgia has already had a busy — and productive — month. Through Sunday, the Bulldogs have 15 verbals in the class of 2013 and six have come since April 6.

The most recent additions are South Gwinnett (Ga.) linebacker Reginald Carter, Camden County (Ga.) cornerback J.J. Green and Ocala (Fla.) North Marion cornerback Reggie Wilkerson, a trio of defensive standouts. Carter has been somewhat under the radar after missing last season with a torn ACL, but is thought to be an excellent pickup. Green, though just 5-foot-9, has tremendous speed, athleticism and instincts.

Georgia is doing especially well at home, as nine of its commits are from in-state. It’s part of a larger Bulldogs’ trend. Following the weekend, Mark Richt also has three 2014 pledges, all from within Georgia borders: Atlanta (Ga.) St. Pius X safety Nick Glass, Bethlehem (Ga.) George Walton running back Stanley Williams and Tyrone (Ga.) Sandy Creek wide receiver Demarre Kitt.

For more recruiting coverage, visit the Rivals.com football recruiting hub.

Kevin Pietersen’s comment that England is jealous of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a candid attack on the English media who has made every effort to belittle the league. It is well known that the English media does not accept anything that is not a creation of their country.

Years ago, when Australian television tycoon Kerry Packer introduced coloured clothing and transformed cricket into a television viewer’s delight, they called it Pyjama cricket. Today England players too wear coloured outfits in international cricket….something they had vehemently criticised.

For many years, England resisted from playing day-night cricket. Despite getting popular around the world since the late seventies, the day-night game was introduced in England only in 1997. Three counties Surrey, Sussex and Warwickshire were courageous enough to stage their home fixtures under lights. Despite the success, no day-night matches were played during the 1999 World Cup.

Until 2005, none of England’s top stadiums had good floodlight facilities. Adapting to the changing world is something that the English media as well as their cricket board must learn to accept. Playing spoilsport merely in the name of tradition and because it was not their discovery should end.

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Dubai: The Inter-school girls’ cricket tournament, organised by Maxtalent Cricket Academy for the Maxtalent Global Vision Cup, took off with Winchester School recording victories over Delhi Private School (DPS) in Dubai and Indian High School at the Sharjah Wanderers Club.

The event, which is mainly organised to attract girls into cricket, is being held under the auspices of the Sharjah Cricket Council and is in its sixth edition.

Winchester School won the match mainly due to 10-year-old Esha James, who represented UAE in the under-19 Asia Cricket Council tournament held in Kuwait recently. She bowled a tight length to take two wickets for seven runs and restrict DPS to 75 for 4 in the allotted 15 overs. Batting first, Winchester had posted 91 for 6 in the 15 overs. DPS bowler Swathi Rajdan’s fine spell of 3 for 15 went in vain.

In another match, Winchester put up an even better show posting an impressive 130 for 5. Indian High School, despite a fighting 21 runs from Aishwarya Tom, were bowled out for 84 runs. Tanvi was the chief destroyer of the Indian High School innings with a spell of three wickets for 12 runs.

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Undoubtedly the match in Barcelona is potentially the more attractive and of higher quality. This will be the fourth time these two powerful teams have met in this season’s competition.

At the San Siro Barca largely dictated play and should surely have had a penalty when the Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez was blatantly brought down by the home goalkeeper, Christian Abbiati.

But it is equally true that Milan missed two manifest chances in the first half, their Brazilian Robinho blazing hopelessly high and over the bar and the towering Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic, once a somewhat unhappy Barcelona man himself — though he still got 16 goals that season — having his shot saved by the Barca keeper, Victor Valdes, when he seemed certain to score.

The inspired pass for that opportunity came from the seemingly ageless Dutchman, Clarence Seedorf, now 36 years old. It was indeed a notable evening for Milan’s distinguished veterans. The absence from central defence of the Brazilian Thiago Silva meant that Alessandro Nesta, also 36, was hauled back into action and lasted 74 minutes, though did commit a fairly gruesome foul on the always effervescent, brave and elusive Lionel Messi.

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