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Manchester is in with a sporting chance of winning yet another international award which could see it taking the gold-medal of titles - the world's ultimate sports city.
The city has been short-listed for this year's SportBusiness Ultimate Sports City award - the internationally recognised ranking of the world's top sports hosts from industry experts.
Labour Councillor Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure at Manchester City Council said: 'Manchester is renowned for its incredible sporting legacy and to be recognised again internationally for our achievements would be a great honour. Our superb venues, organisational skills and 'can do' attitude are the result of a tremendous amount of dedicated teamwork.'
The news puts Manchester in the ring with reigning champion Melbourne and facing competition from the likes of Beijing and Rio de Janeiro for the title.
Manchester has been short-listed following an analysis of cities across the world that in total have played host to more than 2,000 global sports events and federations. The award comes from the SportBusiness Group, the world's leading supplier of sporting information. This year will be the third time the title has been given and the cities are evaluated according to the quality and size of sports events held or planned between 2006 and 2014.
However, hopes are high for Manchester, which was crowned best 'Sports City' in 2008 for its successful hosting of six international sports events including three world championships that year. The award also came from the SportBusiness Group.
This year's judging criteria for Ultimate Sports City title includes analysis of stadia and venues, transport and infrastructure, government and public support and testimonials from event personnel. New size bands have also been introduced so that awards can be made to cities with populations of 1m or below, between 1m and 3.5m, between 3.5m and 7m or above.
The winner of the Ultimate Sports Cities 2010 will be announced in April at the SportAccord Convention in Dubai.
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Manchester compete's to be the sporting capital of the World 
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