InfoStrada Databox: March 2007  

Cheltenham Horseracing
> Horse Racing in Cheltenham began in 1815 with the first official meeting taking place in 1818.
> The first Cheltenham Festival was a two-day affair in 1902 to celebrate the re-opening of the Prestbury Park course.
> The Festival is now four days long and has become the highlight of the National Hunt season.
> It takes place annually in March with the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup as the highlights.
> The 2001 Cheltenham Festival was cancelled because of the foot and mouth disease outbreak in the UK and Ireland.

London Marathon
> The London Marathon first took place on Sunday, 29 March 1981 with 7,500 participants.
> The race now has over 35,000 participants each year and around three times as many applications for places.
> Marathon world records have been broken twice in London, once in the men’s race and once in the women’s.
> In 2002, Khalid Khannouchi completed the men’s race in two hours, five minutes and 38 seconds.
> A year later, Paula Radcliffe broke the women’s world record by recording a time of 2:15:25, a record which still stands.

Emirates Stadium (pictured right courtesy of Getty Images Sport and photographed by Paul Gilham)
> Emirates Stadium is a new high tech soccer stadium, which opened its doors to the public in July 2006.
> Situated in Ashburton Grove, it bears the name of airline Emirates that purchased the naming rights in 2004.
> Arsenal Football Club is the principal tenant of the stadium having moved there from Highbury.
> Emirates Stadium has a capacity of 60,132 making it the second largest venue in the FA Premiership.
> The first match played at The Emirates was Dennis Bergkamp’s testimonial.
> Ajax’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar recorded the first ever goal scored at Emirates Stadium.

Roland Garros/French Open
> The French Open comprises tennis championships staged annually in late May and early June in Paris.
> The first ever edition took place in 1925 with René Lacoste and Suzanne Lenglen pocketing the first singles titles.
> Roland Garros, as it is familiarly known, is the only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments played on clay.
> The defending Men’s Singles champion is Rafael Nadal. The Women’s Singles champion is Justine Henin-Hardenne.
> Björn Borg and Chris Evert-Lloyd won a singles title a record six and seven times respectively.

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