Surprise as Sainsbury's pulls out of British Athletics sponsor deal

Sainsbury's has cut short its four-year deal with British Athletics to sponsor the sport.  The large-scale deal was signed in 2013 and was due to run until 2017.

But an announcement came just days before the World Athletics Championships start in Beijing to say that a mid-point review had allowed the supermarket to end the deal early.

Jenny Meadows at this year's UK Indoor Championship, EIS Sheffield

The surprise to many will be the timing - we have only just had the third Anniversary Games in London, all of which were backed by Sainsbury's, and it was only last year that they had agreed to sponsor all of British Athletics major events.

Pole vaulters Adam Hague and Luke Cutts line up at the EIS

Enjoyed a quick press conference/photo shoot with Adam Hague and Luke Cutts at the EIS, Sheffield today.

This weekend sees the Sainsbury's UK Indoor Athletiics Championships return to the EIS for two days of top athletic action.  Local boys Adam and Luke

Adam has a PB of 5.55m is the current World Youth Indoor pole vault record holder and Luke who set a PB last year of 5.83m is the British Indoor record holder.

See more details of the event at: http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/british-athletics-series/sainsburys-indoor-british-champs/

Great performances at the Sainsbury's Indoor Grand Prix

There were some fantastic performances at one of the last major indoor athletics meetings of the year - the  Sainsbury's Indoor Grand Prix at the NIA, Birmingham.

Genzebe Dibaba (Ethiopia) providing a fitting highlight at the end of the day with a world record in the Women’s two mile race, stopping the clock at 9.00.48.

The record marked her third World Record in as many races and she lapped almost the whole field, including the first British finisher Steph Twell (Mick Woods), who worked through the field well for third in 9.42.41.

Genzebe Dibaba (Ethiopia) enjoying her World record in the Women's two-mile race with the clock stopped at 9:00.48

Greg Rutherford (GBR) on his way to third place behind Aleksandr Menkov (RUS) and Jinzhe Li (CHN) with a Personal Best of 8.00m in the Men's Long Jump.

James Dasaolu (GBR) winning the Men's 60m sprint final with a 6.50sec winning time in the final ahead of Jamaican Nesta Carter in 6.53 and crowd favourite Kim Collins in 6.55.

The semi finals had seen Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut and Dasaolu win their respective heats, with Dasaolu’s time of 6.47 the fastest in the world this year.

Foe more photos, look at: Andy Chubb Photography

Sainsbury's School Games 2013

The Sainsbury's 2013 School Games is a multi-sport event that took place from 12-15 September 2013 in Sheffield.

Twelve sports were held across eight venues in the city and after 3 1/2 days I have racked up 2026 pictures on my hard-drive.

About 1,600 of the nation's finest young sports stars competed in:Fencing, Rugby Sevens, Gymnastics, Hockey, Badminton, Athletics, Cycling, Judo, Swimming, Table Tennis, Volleyball and Wheelchair Basketball.

In addition, approximately 700 coaches, support staff and volunteers gave so much to make the event a roaring success.

In a superb performance on the last day of athletics ever to be held at the Don Valley Stadium, Morgan Lake (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow) cleared 1.82m in the Women's High Jump in very blustery conditions to break Katarina Johnson-Thompson's 2008 record of 1.78m