The Sports Vision Clinic at Patrick and Menzies, is working with Olympic 100m hurdle finalist, Sarah Claxton, to help her break her ‘personal best’ in time for next year’s World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Director of Patrick and Menzies’ Sports Vision division, Gavin Rebello, explains: “Sarah’s a local girl and we watched her in the Olympic finals like everyone else. We noticed that she looked down each time she took a hurdle, and we knew she would be losing speed. We thought there must be a problem, so we offered her our services to see if we could help her.”

Patrick and Menzies is one of only a few specialist opticians that offer ‘Sports Vision’ services to their clients. They have state-of-the-art technology, and are leaders in understanding the visual requirements of sportsmen and women.

Patrick and Menzies discovered that Sarah has subtle focussing inefficiencies in the right eye, and this had led to a lack of spatial awareness at high speed – a problem that would not have been picked up with a normal eye test. Patrick and Menzies has started treating the problem with contact lenses, and a series of eye muscle exercises.

Sarah Claxton is intrigued and excited about Sports Vision. She says: “I had never heard of Sports Vision, and was completely unaware that other sports people like professional footballers already used this technology. My aim for next year is to get my personal best down to 12.6 seconds and I hope this will really help me, I’m really looking forward to seeing the results.”

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A sport mascot performer is more than just a person dressed up in a costume entertaining sports fans. Mascots are created for excitement and fun with the purpose of drawing attention to the brand it represents. A sport mascot performer is representative of a sports team and their management. The importance of a sports mascot has resulted in standards and practices that maximize the effectiveness of bringing attention to a sports team.

The duties of sports mascot performers includes entertaining sports fans of all ages, performing in front of large crowds, performing at special team events, performing at half time shows, maintaining the mascot costume such as cleaning, and working with management regarding merchandising and special promotion events.

A sport mascot must be a skilled and entertaining performer, have a high quality and vibrant costume, and have a supportive administration. To be an effective sport mascot performer, one must have the following credentials:

Professional: Sport mascots must be professional in and out of the costume. They must be able to work independently and as part of a team. They should be kind, polite, adaptable, able to think quickly, have strong interpersonal skills, be responsible, and be prepared to competently deal with any situation. Sport mascots should also be able to interact positively with children and know how to deal with abusive and fearful children.

Dependable: A sport ascot must be reliable, always attend events, and be on time for every event. A mascot will not only be present at home games, but also at away games. A mascot who misses events will usually be fired.

Experience: To be a sport mascot, you should have successful past mascot performing experience. Past experience can include working as a mascot for another sports team, educational institution, small business, or corporation.

Training: There are special training programs where one can learn proper mascot performing techniques as well as the correct way to behave at an event or sports function. Special mascot boot camps include training in such areas as performance techniques, costume maintenance, marketing and merchandising, facial expressions, proper dance methods, non verbal communication, costume repair, creating a mascot personality, working with children, how to react to a sudden injury, entertaining at special events such as charity functions, and much more. Mascot boot camps give performers many ideas on performing, promotions, and merchandising.

Health: Mascots should be physically fit and be able to remain in a costume for a long period of time.

Performance: Sport mascot performers should be able to perform both creatively and professionally. They should also be confident and comfortable performing in front large crowds, energetic, enthusiastic, outgoing, and approachable

Knowledgeable: A sport mascot should know a lot about the sport and the team they are representing.

Other than adding entertainment to a game, a sport mascot can provide many other benefits. Mascots can definitely generate revenue. If a team does not win a game, a mascot can make fans feel entertained and lift their spirits so they want to come to another game. A mascot can fill in for a player who is unable to attend an event. Mascots also attract new sponsors and help with promoting their products. Management can also sell merchandise based on the mascot characters.

The purpose of a sport mascot is to boost team and community spirit while promoting the team for financial gain. A mascot adds to the sports experience by using characterization and energetic performance to excite and entertain the audience. Whether in an incredible costume making a dazzling entrance or helping the community at a special charity event, a sport mascot is a valuable asset to any sports team.

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Racing has grown into one of the world’s most popular sports. Men have been competing ever since the dawn of mankind, the most magnificent manifestation of this desire to compete occurred in the Olympics. Ever since vehicles were built, they have been used for racing. Historically, people raced on horse-drawn buggies. After cars were built, they became the popular vehicles used for racing. On April 28 1887 the first ever race was organized in Paris but there was only one competitor, the first ever contest occurred on July 22 1894, organized by the Paris magazine Le Petit Journal. The next year a race from Paris to Bordeaux was organized. The Gordon Bennett Cup started the tradition of international racing competitions.

City to city racing gained popularity and many races were organized from Paris to other major cities connected to Paris in Europe. However, in 1903 Marcel Renault suffered from a fatal accident in the Paris-Madrid race, the accident caused nine fatalities forcing the French Government to abandon the race and ban open-road racing altogether. However, the interest in the sport did not end there. In fact, car manufacturers started producing pure racing cars.

Currently there are many major categories of auto-racing. Arguably the most popular in the world is the Formula One racing, which belongs to the category of single-seater racing. The cars are specifically designed to achieve high-speeds. The races follow a certain format with Formula One being the standard international format. There is an annual World Championship for which drivers compete by taking part in races on racing tracks all over the world. The likes of Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Honda, Renault and Red Bull Racing compete for the championship. The companies are constantly looking to improve their driver skills and technology to achieve the best results. Michael Schumacher, who drove for Ferrari, is a recent legend of the sport.

Touring car racing and Production car racing use production driven race cars, the former features large grids whereas the latter is a restricted form to reduce costs. Another variation of this category is called one-make racing or single marque, where only the cars produced by a single manufacturer or sometimes just a single model from a manufacturer are used.

Stock car racing is the most popular form of car racing in the United States, the largest body governing this category is called NASCAR. Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 are two of its most famous races. The cars are custom made according to specifications specifically for the purpose of racing. Cars race on oval tracks. Automobile Racing Club of America and United Speed Alliance Racing are two of the other stock car governing bodies.

Rallying, also called rally racing, has two broad categories. The first category of cars use cars which are legal to use on the road called the modified Group A whereas the Group N Production cars race on public roads closed for the public or off road areas. The format of the race is such that drivers earn points after completing intervals and there are several stages over which the rally is conducted. The World Rally Championship (WRD) is the top series in the world. Targa racing, drag racing and off-road racing are other forms of auto-racing popular in the world.

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